It’s Charlie’s birthday today. He is 5 years old.
Charlie is on holiday. He’s staying with Auntie Annie at the
seaside.
“What would you like to do this morning, Charlie?” Auntie
Annie asked. “Your birthday party doesn’t start until 3 o’clock.”
“I want to ride on a donkey,” said Charlie.
“Do you?”
“But only if you ride a donkey, too,” said Charlie.
Auntie Annie and Charlie hurried to the beach. The sea was a
long way out and the donkeys were trotting miserably along the sand without any
riders. Very soon they came back to the place where they always waited for
riders. Auntie Annie and Charlie went up to the man in charge of the donkeys.
“Charlie wants to ride on a donkey,” said Auntie Annie.
“Does he?” said the man, smiling from ear to ear. He was
short and fat. Charlie would be his first rider that day.
“Yes I do,” said Charlie, “and so does Auntie Annie.”
Charlie pointed to his Auntie. Auntie Annie shook her head.
“I don’t really want to ride at my age.”
Charlie looked disappointed.
“You are not too old, Mrs,” the donkey man said, bowing like
a musketeer. “I have donkeys especially for grownups and ladies.”
The donkey man went up to a grey donkey with a bright
blanket over its back.
“This donkey feels the cold, Mrs. He’d be happy to take you
for a ride. It would keep his back warm.”
“Very well. I would hate to disappoint him.”
The donkey man turned to Charlie and asked him to tell him
his name.
“Charlie, Sir,” said Charlie, who had decided that anyone in
charge of so many donkeys must be a very special person.
“Charlie? Now isn’t that a coincidence,” the donkey man
said. “That little donkey in the front is named Charlie. Would you like to ride
on him?”
“Yes please, Sir,” said Charlie, and the donkey man lifted
him onto the donkey and told him to hold the reins tightly.
“Why has he got such sad eyes?” Charlie asked.
“He always has sad eyes until a nice little boy named
Charlie decides to ride on him,” said the donkey man. “Now it’s your turn,
Mrs,” he said, offering to lift Auntie Annie onto the saddle.
“I can get on by myself,” said Auntie Annie, and did so.
Nobody else seemed interested in a donkey ride, so it was
just Charlie, Auntie Annie and 16 empty donkeys who set off down the beach.
The donkeys were tied together, so they always stayed together,
but the donkey man always walked with the donkey in the front with a horsewhip in
his hand to hurry the donkeys along if they were too slow.
Charlie the little boy was excited. Both Charlies wanted to
go even faster.
The donkey man could not run very fast, and the donkeys
really preferred to walk than run, but the donkey man now had to hold the
donkeys back when Charlie called “Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Charlie!”.
Soon the donkeys picked up speed and were cantering down the
beach instead of walking. Charlie the donkey’s sad eyes lit up. He was
cantering without first feeling the horsewhip on his flank.
Auntie Annie was
bobbing up and down and hanging on grimly to her donkey, shouting “Slow down,
please!”, but the cantering turned into a gallop.
The donkey man was now running as fast as he could. The
little bells around the donkeys’ harnesses were jingling merrily. Charlie the
little boy and Charlie the donkey were having a wonderful time.
Since Charlie the donkey was galloping, all the other
donkeys were galloping, too. Auntie Annie screamed “Slow down now!” without the
’please’. The donkey man let go of Charlie the donkey and fell moaning to the
ground. He could not run any more. Now he had sad eyes and all the donkeys had happy
eyes.
What kind of eyes did Auntie Annie have?
I’ll let you into a secret. Her eyes were wide open and she
was shouting “Stop, Stop!” at the top of her voice.
Several people on the beach took up the chase after the
donkeys because they thought they were running away. But there was no need to
stop the donkeys. They stopped all by themselves when they got to the place
where they always stopped.
The donkeys waited for the donkey man to catch up with them.
A kind person helped Auntie Annie to climb off her donkey. Charlie wanted to stay
on his.
“Can I take the donkey home, Auntie Annie?” he said.
“He’s not for sale, Mrs,” interrupted the donkey man. “He’s
the fastest donkey in the world.”
Auntie Annie thought the donkey man was being quite clever.
The people who had run after the donkeys were very impressed and they all
wanted a ride on the fastest donkey in the world. Since the donkeys were all tied together, they
were all the fastest donkey in the world, but no one thought of that.
“We couldn’t buy him anyway. We haven’t got a field to put
him in,” said Auntie Annie. “Come along now, Charlie.”
“I can’t leave my donkey here,” said Charlie.
“We’ll come back tomorrow,” said Auntie Annie.
At his birthday party that afternoon, Charlie told everyone
that although he liked his bicycle present very much, he preferred his donkey.
“What donkey?” they all asked.
The donkey that my Auntie Annie gave me this morning,” he
explained.
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