JOUENAL OP iHOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



TO OUR READERS. 



(From an unpublished ivork.) 



" George, how many years have you driven ' The Success ?' " 



" More than twenty, my Lady." 



" Are you not tired of the occupation ? " 



" Not a bit, my Lady. You see, Kobert is always about the coach, and when I and my little 

 woman want a holiday, he takes the ribbons. There is no end of change in coaching. Although we 

 never turn off the old horses, and we drive steadily, yet they die off, and then we have to draft in new 

 sound ones. Then opposition coaches start, and it 's pleasant to see how they sometimes are trying 

 to run before us, and sometimes running behind us." 



•■■ But, George, they must take some passengers from you." 



" I daresay they do sometimes, my Lady, but we never miss 'em, for we are always full, thank 

 God, and the old passengers come back after a time, and say they are sorry they ever left us. Some- 

 times a new start, to make a show, takes passengers for nothing ; but that, my Lady, you know, won't 

 fill the corn bin." 



" Your horses, George, go as well as ever ?" 



" Yes, my Lady, they are a well-bred lot, and plenty of 'em ; and they know who handles 'em ; 

 and W€ give 'em a few beans occasionally, and the passengers know 'em and pat 'em, and horses like 

 that. \Vh}-, my Lady, some of 'em have been leaders ever since the coach started, and go over then- 

 ground as fresh as the first day they put their shoulders to the collar. Everyone says how fresh and 

 gay ' old Bob ' and the ' Kentish Cob ' are still. "Wonderful horses they are. And the young uus, 

 my Lady, how steadily they keep the pace ! Why, the box is as easy as an armchair. Neither Kobert 

 nor I ever used the whip sLuce we mounted that box. Besides, my Lady, the team has travelled so long 

 together, that they are used to one another, and Eobert and I made up our minds years ago never 

 willingly to change 'em so long as we held the ribbons of ' The Success.' " 



