Donkey-donkey Read online

  Donkey-donkey

  by Roger Duvoisin

  THE NEW YORK REVIEW CHILDREN’S COLLECTION, NEW YORK

  THIS IS A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOK

  PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

  435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

  www.nyrb.com

  Copyright © 1940 by Grosset & Dunlop

  Copyright renewed © 1968 by Roger Duvoisin

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Louise Fili, Ltd.

  ISBN 978-1-59017-989-5

  v1.0

  For a complete list of books in the New York Review Children's Collection, visit www.nyrb.com or write to:

  Catalog Requests, NYRB, 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright and More Information

  DONKEY-DONKEY

  Biographical Notes

  Donkey-donkey was a nice little donkey.

  His ears were just long enough.

  His belly was white and round as a ball.

  Donkey-donkey had many very dear friends. Here are some of them:

  Here are some others:

  Pit and Pat, the horses,

  and Hector, the dog, also were his friends.

  Donkey-donkey’s master was the kindest man in the village.

  Donkey-donkey loved thistles for his dinner, and there were a lot of them near the little stream across the meadow.

  Yet, in spite of all that, Donkey-donkey was not happy. One day he was drinking with Pat at the stream.

  He saw Pat’s head and his own in the water.

  He thought Pat was so beautiful with his small ears, and he so ridiculous with his long ones that he became very sad and would not eat anymore.

  Donkey-donkey at last went to see Hector. Hector was very clever. He knew all sorts of tricks. He could tell his right paw from his left paw, and so on. Surely his advice would be good.

  “You poor donkey,” said Hector. “I know what’s wrong with you. With your ears up like that, you resemble a sailboat. Keep your ears down as I do.

  “See how funny I would look with my ears up!”

  “That’s it, Donkey-donkey, put them down. Now they look almost as nice as mine. And Pat will be jealous because he can’t do that.”

  And Donkey-donkey was happy again. He went trotting around the farm like a little colt.

  But poor Donkey-donkey. How his friends laughed when they saw him!

  “Silly donkey,” said Fuzzy-fuzzy, the lamb. “Why do you believe what Hector says? There is only one way to wear ears. Look at me! Doesn’t everyone say I am pretty?

  “And look at Phoebe, the goat!

  “And look at Fanny, the cow!

  “And look at the farmer’s brother!

  “Do you see how they all put their ears on the side? So many people cannot be wrong, Donkey-donkey.”

  Donkey-donkey was impressed. He let Fuzzy-fuzzy fix his long ears. “Now,” said the lamb, “you are beautiful. Wait, let’s fetch a mirror!”

  Donkey-donkey agreed that he did look dainty. Naomi, the hen, said the mirror flattered him. But she had a bad disposition and of course she would say that.

  So Donkey-donkey went away again, happy although somewhat doubtful, as you can see by his expression.

  This is the stable door with a scythe hanging on a big nail and Donkey-donkey just about to enter.

  He entered as usual. But unfortunate donkey! The wicked nail met his ear and pierced it painfully.

  Donkey-donkey was sadder than ever. He cried all night long. It was very unpleasant for his friends. They could not sleep. They were quite angry with him.

  The next day Donkey-donkey decided to consult Rosa, the mother pig. She was not known to be very clever. She ate and slept so much. But she was a very honest person. Rosa listened attentively to Donkey-donkey’s grievances.

  “Let me think,” she said. And she closed her eyes to think more deeply.

  But pigs have slow minds. Donkey-donkey waited a long time. He counted up to one hundred, but Rosa was still thinking. I suspect in fact that she just went to sleep.

  At last she opened her eyes and she said, “Donkey-donkey, I don’t know much about making people look prettier. But I can give you some practical advice: The idea of wearing ears up and down and sideways is all foolishness. When they are up, the wind and the rain get in them. When they are down, you can’t hear and when they are sideways, well . . . you know what happens.

  “But if you keep them in front, like mine, then you don’t need an umbrella. You laugh at the sun and at the rain and you can hear well. Ugh! Ugh!” And Rosa, who had never spoken so much in her life, went to sleep.

  Donkey-donkey tried it at once. He thought it really was a very good idea.

  Two days later there was a lot of wind and rain. Pat caught cold and had the mumps. He had to stay in for a week. He was much ashamed. Donkey-donkey did not catch cold. He was delighted, although he felt sorry for Pat of course. But . . .

  This is to show the inconvenience of wearing one’s ears in front and of being unable to see the sun and other things up in the air:

  Mr. Jones, the farmer, was painting his house. His ladder, being too old, broke. Mr. Jones fell. He fell on Donkey-donkey’s head, and they both fell to the ground. And . . .

  . . . Donkey-donkey was very ill. The doctor was called in.

  He bandaged his wounds.

  He pulled his tongue.

  He felt his pulse.

  He put him on a scale.

  He listened to his breathing.

  And then he gave him some bad-tasting medicine with a spoon.

  Donkey-donkey’s wounds were soon healed. But he was still unhappy about his ears. Everything he tried had failed. As he was brooding over these sad things, Daniel, the little sparrow, perched on the nearby fence.

  He said, “Donkey-donkey, silly donkey. You aren’t a dog. You aren’t a lamb. You aren’t a pig. You are a donkey. Keep your ears up as donkeys do. Twitt! Twitt! Twitt!” And Daniel flew swiftly away.

  Donkey-donkey was astonished. But he was delighted when a little girl passing by with her father said, “Oh! Daddy! See the pretty little donkey. His ears are so beautiful!”

  And from that day Donkey-donkey kept his ears up. He enjoyed eating thistles again and he became the happiest of donkeys.

  . . . and this story is finished.

  ROGER DUVOISIN (1900–1980) was born to a French Swiss family in Geneva. He graduated from the École des Arts et Métiers and the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and early in his career worked as a mural and stage-set painter before settling on textile design. In the late 1920s, he immigrated to the United States, where he soon began writing and illustrating children’s books. The author of more than forty of his own books, Duvoisin also collaborated with many writers, including his wife, Louise Fatio Duvoisin, and Alvin Tresselt, with whom he won a Caldecott Award for White Snow, Bright Snow in 1948 and the Caldecott Honor Award for Hide and Seek Fog in 1966. Today he is best known for Petunia, the story of a not-so-silly silly goose.

  The New York Review Children’s Collection will publish Duvoisin’s The House of Four Seasons and The Frog in the Well in the coming seasons.

 

 

  Roger Duvoisin, Donkey-donkey

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