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Meanwhile the foal kept nuzzling with his nose between the legs of the she-asses that passed by, chiefly because he was hungry, and his master, the moment the young thing opened his mouth to bray, fetched him a bang and made him be quiet, because the buyers wouldn’t want him if they heard him.

“It’s still there,” said Neighbor Neli in his brother’s ear, pretending to come past again to look for the man who was selling broiled chick-peas.”If we wait till Ave Maria we can get him for a dollar less than the price we offered.”

The sun of May was hot, so that from time to time, in the midst of the shouting and swarming of the fair there fell a great silence over all the fairground, as if there was nobody there, and then the mistress of the ass came back to say to her husband: “Don’t you hold out for a dollar more or less, because there’s no money to buy anything in with, this evening; and then you know the foal will eat a dollar’s worth in a month, if he’s left on our hands.”

“If you’re not going,” replied her husband, “I’ll fetch you a kick you won’t forget!”

So the hours of the fair rolled by, but none of those who passed before the ass of Saint Joseph stopped to look at him; for sure enough his master had chosen the most humble position, next to the low-price cattle, so as not to make him show up too badly beside the beautiful bay mules and the glossy horses! It took a fellow like Neighbor Neli to go and bargain for Saint Joseph’s ass, which set everybody in the fair laughing the moment they saw it. With having waited so long in the sun the foal let his head and his ears drop, and his owner had seated himself gloomily on the stones, with his hands also dangling between his knees, and the halter rope in his hands, watching here and there the long shadows, which began to form in the plain as the sun went down, from the legs of all such beasts that had not found a buyer. ThenNeli and his brother, and another friend whom they had picked up for the occasion, came walking that way, looking into the air, so that the owner of the ass also twisted his head away to show he wasn’t sitting there waiting for them; and the friend of Neighbor Neli said like this, looking vacant, as if the idea had just come to him:

“Oh, look at the ass of Saint Joseph! Why don’t you buy him, Neighbor Neli?”

“I asked the price of him this morning; he’s too dear. Then I should have everybody laughing at me with that black-and-white donkey. You can see that nobody would have him, so far.”

“That’s a fact, but the color doesn’t matter, if a thing is any use to you.”

And he asked of the owner: “How much do you expect us to make you a present of, for that Saint Joseph’s donkey?”

The wife of the owner of the ass of Saint Joseph, seeing that the bargaining had started again, came edging softly up to them, with her hands clasped under her short cloak.

“Don’t mention such a thing!” Neighbor Neli began to shout, running away across the plain.”Don’t mention such a thing to me; I won’t hear a word of it.”

“If he doesn’t want it, let him go without it,” answered the owner.”If he doesn’t take it, somebody else will. It’s a sad man who has nothing left to sell, after the fair!”

“But I mean him to listen to me, by the blessed devil I do!” squealed the friend.”Can’t I say my own fool’s say like anybody else?”

And he ran to seize Neighbor Neli by the jacket; then he came back to speak a word in the ear of the ass’s owner, who now wanted at any cost to go home with his little donkey, so the friend threw his arms around his neck, whispering: “Listen! a dollar more or less, if you don’t sell it today; you won’t find another softy like my pal here to buy your beast, which isn’t worth a cigar.”