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248 DAYS IN THE SUN
side-ways, for they do not want to give me anything.”
“You see, the sight is too bitter for them!”
“No, not that, but they are stingy like all women.
But then I stick out my stump so far that they cannot
help touching it with their dresses; then they become
disgusted and throw me a coin, so that I may not do it
again, for they think there is pus on it! So you will
permit me to keep your shilling and keep my leg ex-
posed anyway, brother, nobleman (hermano, cabal-
lero) ?”
“Oh, yes, if you like, good-by, amigo!”
“Go with God, señorito.”
In front of the Cathedral staircase lay a donkey,
all four legs stretched away from him, his neck lying
on the pavement, his eyes closed. He had collapsed
under too great a burden of charcoal. The driver did
not take off his load but kicked the soft parts of his
body with his heavy boot and shouted: “Be up and
doing, ass, beast, hypocrite!” But the donkey would
not stir, and now his driver began to weep. Two gyp-
sies came along. They did not help the peasant, but
vituperated the beast, deciding to utilize his master’s
desperation to purchase the animal for a song. The
transaction was already well under way when a priest
came down the steps of the Cathedral and ordered the
peasant to unload the donkey. The donkey rose with
great difficulty; he had wounds on his knees and chest,
from his fall, and his back was lacerated from the un-
ending friction of the load. If you poked at these
wounds with a sharp stick, the donkey would gallop
away and would not stop until he fell lifeless to the
ground. He was a little donkey, a sweet little donkey,
and now that he was once more on his legs, the peasant
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