124 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



By this time the Doctor knew that he must be near 

 a considerable river, with high banks, which flowed 

 through those parts, and very soon he heard the 

 waters roaring on the rocks below. But now his 

 horse came to a dead stop, refusing to cross the 

 bridge. The Doctor urged him forward, and he took 

 a few steps, but then moved back in his tracks. This 

 was repeated twice. Finally, vexed at such unusual 

 obstinacy in an animal long accustomed to rough and 

 nocturnal travelling, the Doctor struck him with the 

 whip. The horse squealed with disgust at this treat- 

 ment, shook his head, advanced as before, and then 

 backed again, and cast an inquiring glance behind him 

 at his master. Now at last, the Doctor, dismount- 

 ing, went forward to reconnoitre. And this is what 

 he saw. The flooring of the bridge had been swept 

 away completely by a flood ; nothing was left but the 

 sleepers running from bank to bank, and it was on one 

 of these sleepers that the horse had walked out so far 

 as he could with safety to the gig and its occupant. 

 The obstructions half a mile and a mile back, which 

 the roadster had jumped, were brush fences put up 

 to stop travel on the highway until the bridge could 

 be repaired. 



Xow that we are in the vein, I trust that the read- 

 er will pardon me if I relate another anecdote of a 

 Morgan roadster. This was a chestnut mare belong- 

 ing to an old and highly respected " Vet." : One very 

 dark night the Doctor was driving toward home at a 

 fast trot on a level road, and in his proper place on 

 the right hand side of it. Presently he heard, though 

 he could not see, a wagon approaching at a rapid rate 



1 Dr Flagg, of New Bedford, Massachusetts. 



