The Coachmaster 



with the coat, "very well Indeed, my boy. 

 I left Boxer and the mare to be shot this 

 morning," he added hurriedly, and burst 

 into tears. They were the two horses 

 he loved above all the rest — the two 

 sweethearts as he called them — and they 

 were his best horses for all that they were 

 some of the oldest too. 



A few days later, speaking to me of his 

 two favourites — of their gentleness, their 

 readiness for work, their long years of ser- 

 vice seemingly so harshly repaid by that 

 strange death — he added, " But I've been 

 thinking, boy, more and more, that it's 

 wronor to fret ; for if the Almio;htv hadn't 

 given me horses, I couldn't have lost them, 

 could I ? " 



Loss followed on loss, and trouble on 

 trouble. The first railway between 

 London and Brighton was opened, and 

 that railroad was cut rio-ht throus^h the 

 livelihoods of many families, our own 

 among many others. Things could hardly 

 have happened less happily for our for- 

 tunes. jNIy Father had recently sold the 

 interest of the coaches to a friend, the pro- 

 prietor of the " Old Bell," but had not re- 

 ceived the purchase money : nor did he 

 ever get it either, for his friend himself 

 suffered so severely by the coming of the 

 75 



