I yanked and tugged at the bit. It 

 was as a wisp of hay in his mouth. I 

 might as well have been a monkey or a 

 straw woman bobbing up and down on 

 his back. Pound, pound, thump, thump, 

 gaily sped on the Great Goer. There 

 were dim shouts far behind me for a 

 while, then no more. The roadside 

 whipped by, two long streaks of green. 

 We whizzed across the railroad track 

 in front of the day express, accom- 

 panied by the engine's frantic shriek of 

 " down brakes." If a shoe had caught 

 in the track — ah ! I lost my hat, my 

 gold hatpin, every hairpin, and brown 

 locks flew out two feet behind. 



Away went my watch, then the all in 

 two pockets, knife, purse, match-box — 

 surely this trail was an improvement on 

 Tom Thumb's bread crumbs. One 

 foot was out of the stirrup. I wrapped 

 the reins around the pommel and clung 



