How Queen Victoria Obtained her Donkey.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 31 October 1911, Page 4

How Queen Victoria Obtained her Donkey.

It n - as at tlio time of Qircon Vicioria'.s stay at Aix-les-.Uains in 1892. S!k> found n great difficulty in walkiiiii. and coniplaiiipd that slio Ivad no nicniiK of locomotion fit for easy and immediate uso and requiring; no yroat ])ieparn{ion. AVoll, one afteriinon. f.s kTio \vas driving alons t'ho edge of tlio Lac <lo Hourgot, she mot a peasant jogging aloii.c; in a .small rnrt drawn liy a donkey. Tlio aniin;il wns .still young, but so thin, so very thin, kind ko ill-groomed that ho was very little to look at. T'he Queen stopped her carriage, and beckoned to t*io fellow. "Would: von oni'o io .sell me your donkey?" she asked. Xot knowing to whom he was speaking, the peasant replied with the usual distrust which country people entertain for tihose who come from tire towns, "All depends." "How much did you pny for him?" asked the Queen". "A hundred fraucs . . . and he was cheap at the price." "I'll give you two ilumdred .... Will von take it?" The peasant protended to hesitate. T .said in my turn— "you can buy two donkeys with that." He nt last made up his mind. Tlio bargain was struck, and the donkey became the Queen's property, and was duly washed, ourry-combed, groomed, and generally smartened up. Above all. .lie was hotter fed. Soon after he was put to draw the Queen along the little roads and narrow walks which her carriage could not enter. Thenceforth Jacquot, as he was namecli, led n noasy. gontle and agreeable life; for tllie Queen doted on animals, and insisted that the greatest care should ho taken of all the horses in her stahlos without distinction.— Girls' Own Paper and Woman's j Magazine.