320 



COMPETENT AND INCOMPETENT SERVANTS. 



to be in time for a luncheon engagement, the master accepts 

 some lame excuse in reply to his remonstrance. 



The finished coachman does not talk to the groom on 

 the box, but keeps him at all times up to his duties. In 

 stopping before a house or shop he gradually lessens the 

 speed of the horses and draws up and starts with the great- 

 est care ; he takes the precaution to be within hailing dis- 

 tance when his master or mistress are calling or shopping or 

 when leaving them at some new house where a mistake in 

 the number or street may have been made. Upon return- 

 ing to the stable the horses are thoroughly groomed and 

 blanketed, the carriage and harness cleaned and the regu- 

 lar evening work completed. 



Again all this part of the 

 work is usually very differently 

 conducted by the jack-of-all- 

 trades coachman who takes ad- 

 vantage of the opportunity 

 while out to gaze into the shop 

 windows, recognize cab-driver 

 acquaintances and carry on a 

 humorous conversation with 

 his companion on the box. 

 The carriage bounds from rut 

 to rut, curbstones are scraped 

 in rounding corners, and the 

 stop at the desired destination 



is made with an abruptness that sends the turn-out and its 

 occupants into "pie," as the printers term a state of chaos. 

 By chance the owner has made a mistake in the number of 

 the house, but by the time it is discovered the equipage is 



