freely adapted from the story “The Plasterer’s Donkey” by Luigi Capuana.
Once upon a time there was a plasterer who had many donkeys, skinny, ugly and dirty; but among all these donkeys he had one that was the ugliest of all. He was skinny, crooked, mangy, with a flayed tail, his legs so ruined that he seemed to be standing by a miracle. But when his master shouted: “Forward fiery!”… the donkey raised his head, lowered his ears to be more aerodynamic and rotating his tail as if it were the propeller of an airplane, he took off faster than a bray! You must not be fooled by appearances, even a donkey can have a noble heart and kings and princesses sometimes have to roll up their sleeves to earn a little nobility.
