178 THE SAGUENAY. 



the caliches on the road, the ladies hanging on Uke grim death 

 to the seat, the dashboard, the driver, and each other, their 

 hats jammed over their eyes, their frills and furbelows gener- 

 ally shaken up and crushed, and their pompadours and hair- 

 pins scattered along the road. In vain do they plead : 



" Oh driver ! please — do — stop — oh — oh — help— stop— mer- 

 cy — stop — oh — I — shall — die — my — hair — my — oh ! " 



The last " oh " is stifled by a leap over a gully. Appre- 

 ciating the dilemma at a glance, we hurry on after, and hail, 

 with many a gesture : 



" Hold on there, you stupid idiot ! stop, I say ! what are 

 you about — don't you see the ladies are killed ? stop ! arret- 

 la!" ■ 



That omnipotent French word did the business ; the nin- 

 compoop hadn't understood a word before. "Arret-la" 

 means stop — and he did — like the snap of a trap ! In a jiffy 

 the ladies were over the dashboard ! When they had recov- 

 ered and found themselves on terra firma at last, they shook 

 out their ruffled plumage and exchanged their vehicle for 

 ours, which had a slower horse and a less reckless driver. 

 We were just in the spirit of humoring that Frenchman — 

 we had ridden hundreds of miles in caleches. We deter- 

 mined to take the starch out of his animal, and we did ! we 

 got our money's worth ! Away we went through the quaint 

 little settlement like a streak of greased lightniug, I on the 

 back seat, the Frenchman on the dashboard, sitting sideways ; 

 and at each jolt we shot upwards like a jack-in-the-box, first 

 the Frenchman, then the passenger, raising ourselves clear 

 of the seat by the spring of the legs. It was equal to Dan 

 Eice's circus. Then the Frenchman laughed, and the horse 

 perspired and reeked ; and on we sped with a swiftness that 

 made the passing objects scurry by like phantasmagoria — 

 party-colored houses — curious clay ovens standing in the 

 open air by themselves, and little bridges that crossed the 

 brooks—" line 7naison, mi four, U7i petit po7it — ti7ie ninison, un 

 four, un petit pont," and so forth successively, with a skijjj a 



