Giuseppe and the Little Donkey

By Laura Rapley

When a lonely little boy rescues and adopts an orphaned
Little Donkey, who could have imagined the adventure that was about to unfold

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Dec 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504993883

Laura Rapley

The author was raised as a bit of an international nomad living in a lot of different countries. It was during time spent in Australia that the story of the little boy and the donkey formulated in her mind, but it was only years later, after working in horticulture, becoming a self-taught artist, and developing an understanding of the environmental issues affecting our planet that it drew all the strands together to enable her to finally commit this story to paper.

Book preview

2015 Laura Rapley. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse: 12/14/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9387-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9388-3 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

7198.png

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Page2_Leaving%20England.tif

Leaving England

Chapter One

Giuseppe stood on the prow of the ferry and waited for his uncle to come back. Normally he would be happy and excited about going to see his Grandad, but today he was just sad.

Uncle Carlos came back just as Giuseppe looked back at England.

Don’t worry kiddo; your dad will be alright. He just needs time,

Uncle Carlos said, as he put his arm around Giuseppe’s shoulder.

Giuseppe looked up at his Uncle and smiled sadly.

There were so many things he wanted to ask him, but even though his Uncle was smiling and hugging him, his eyes were sad, and he didn’t want to upset him.

Giuseppe was a very kind little boy.

Come on, said his uncle, lets get something to eat, and then we have got to get some sleep. We have got a long drive when we get off the ferry. I know some nice places we can stop off along the way. Giuseppe pulled a face, the main thing he remembered about the nice places, was a lot of old ladies talking excitedly in Spanish, and pinching his cheeks. Uncle Carlos saw Giuseppe’s face and laughed, he knew exactly what Giuseppe was thinking. There was just something about this little boy that people liked, especially Spanish matrons.

They arrived at Grandads farm a few days later, they had stopped at friends of Uncle Carlos along the way. Which meant that Giuseppe had escaped the worst of the Spanish matrons, though his cheeks were still a little pink.

When Grandad and the dogs came out to greet them, Giuseppe had noticed his eyes were sad too, but he just picked up Giuseppe and kissed him saying, don’t worry my little man we are going to have some fun, but first we had better get your Uncle fed and into bed, He looks fit to drop.

Uncle Carlos protested, but only a bit as Grandad hugged him. Between them they got the bags in, and sure enough, just as Grandad said, Uncle Carlos went to bed right after dinner. Giuseppe and Grandad fed all of the animals, and put them to bed for the night.

Then Grandad fired up the generator, (which was Grandad’s only source of electricity), so that he could watch a DVD on Grandads old TV. Grandad didn’t have a proper aerial or dish to get TV channels.

But he did have lot of D.V.D’.s, Giuseppe fell asleep on the sofa, snuggled up to Grandad.

When Giuseppe woke up, he was a bit confused, but then he heard Grandad in the kitchen. He slipped out of bed and got dressed quickly.

Ah! There you are my little man, Grandad said, I am making a proper English breakfast, just like your mother showed me.

And there it was, the first time anyone had mentioned Giuseppe’s mum since the funeral. Grandad noticed the look on Giuseppe’s face.

Are you alright Jessie? (Giuseppe had been named after his Grandad’s Italian father-in-law), so though although in Spain he was often called Pepe, only Grandad and his mum called him Jessie. Giuseppe nodded, but then a big tear rolled down his face.

Grandad picked him up and cuddled him.

I miss her too Giuseppe, I miss her too.

For the next two weeks, Uncle Carlos stayed on the farm with Giuseppe and