The Coachmaster 



Into the booking-office and asked of Mary 

 the name of the offender, and learned he 

 was a well-known Informers' Maelstrate. 



The informers were people who rode on 

 or spied about coaches, earning a certain 

 sum for every reported case of overloading: 

 did a coachman suffer but one person more 

 than his correct number to ride ever so 

 short a distance, he was liable to be fined 

 ^5. This man, the head of an ancient 

 family of our county, was known to have 

 many of these creatures at work up and 

 down the road ; and In every instance 

 that the case was tried before him, the 

 informer's word was taken before that of 

 the coachman, often to the real hurt of the 

 latter. Several of my Father's friends on 

 the road had suffered most harshly and 

 unjustly at the hands of the mean, can- 

 tankerous old squire, and hence his honest 

 aversion to his company. 



The coachmasters of that time were for 

 the most part a deep-drinking, hard-swear- 

 ing set of men, but in this respect my 

 Father differed delightfully from them. 

 For all his love of good comradeship, he 

 was the most abstemious soul in the world, 

 and I never In my life, save once, knew 

 him to swear. It was on one occasion 

 when there had come to his ears a tale of 

 ^3 



