Traveling on foot through the Cevennes in France, with a view to writing about the place and the people, Robert Louis Stevenson decided to buy a donkey (which he named "Modestine") to carry his supplies. Never having worked with a donkey before, he soon found that what he thought was an accessory to his trip became the central focus--even to the point of becoming the title of the book, Travels with a Donkey. In it, Stevenson described how Modestine would…
Karl GriffithNovember 16, 2006