The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: separate the pair and beat down their young romance with a renewed
and feverish bastinado. If the other donkey had had the heart of a
male under his hide, he would have fallen upon me tooth and hoof;
and this was a kind of consolation - he was plainly unworthy of
Modestine's affection. But the incident saddened me, as did
everything that spoke of my donkey's sex.
It was blazing hot up the valley, windless, with vehement sun upon
my shoulders; and I had to labour so consistently with my stick
that the sweat ran into my eyes. Every five minutes, too, the
pack, the basket, and the pilot-coat would take an ugly slew to one
side or the other; and I had to stop Modestine, just when I had got
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