"
"Let us hope that you have both contracted a more serviceable friendship
in another direction," said the doctor, and Bessie laughed. She was
aware that his estimate of feminine friendship was not exalted.
About half a mile farther, where a byroad turned off towards Fairfield,
the riders came upon a remarkable group in high debate over a
donkey--Lady Latimer, Gampling the tinker, and the rural policeman. My
lady instantly summoned Mr. Carnegie to her succor in the fray, which,
to judge from her countenance and the stolid visage of the emissary of
the law, was obstinate. It appeared that the policeman claimed to arrest
the donkey and convey him to the pound. The dry and hungry beast had
been tethered by his master in the early morning where a hedge and
margin of sward bordered the domain of Admiral Parkins. Uninstructed in
modern law, he broke loose and strayed along the green, cropping here
and there a succulent shoot of thorn or thistle, until, when
approaching repletion, he was surprised by the policeman, reprimanded,
captured, and led ignominiously towards the gaol for vagrant animals--a
donkey that everybody knew.
"He's took the innicent ass into custody, and me he's going to summons
and get fined," Gampling exclaimed, his indignation not abated by the
appearance of another friend upon the scene, for a friend he still
counted the doctor, though he persisted in his refusal to mend his
kettles and pots and pans.
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