QA2 in English 4

Once there was a sad little donkey. "It's no use," he said to himself. "I try to be as good as a horse. But I just can't be. A horse can go racing around a herd of cattle. He can do it with a cowboy on his back. And I just can't do that."

The donkey drooped his long ears.

"The horses laugh at me," he cried. "They say my ears are too long. And they say my legs are too short. Why, they even say that I'm only good for eating grass!" And he sadly ate some grass.

Just then some cowboys came riding by. They were going to a high pass up in the mountains. And they were taking lots of things with them. They were taking food. They were taking pots and pans. And they were taking bedrolls and warm clothes.

All these things made a big pack. And the horses just couldn't carry such a big pack--at least not up a steep mountain. Oh, no! Horses would slip and fall.

So the cowboys took all their things off the horses. They put them on the little donkey's back. Then they got on their horses and rode up the mountain path.

The horses couldn't go fast. They kept sliding and slipping. But the little donkey could go fast. He didn't slide or slip. He could go fast even with the big pack on his back.

"I don't know what we'd do without that little donkey," said a cowboy named Pete.

"No, sir," said the other cowboys. "There's nothing like a donkey for uphill work."

And the horses said, "He sure can climb with those short little legs!"

The donkey waggled his long ears. Now he felt much better. Now he liked being a little donkey.

"Maybe I'm some use after all," he said to himself. And he trotted quickly up the mountain.