FOUR IN HAND. 143 



result toolv place. It ended in a deal, and they actually 

 exclianged teams, my employer getting a large sum of 

 money in the exchange. We went out with our new 

 team every day, getting them properly bitted, in road 

 language, putting them together. The fact was, three 

 of these horses were beyond comparison, much faster 

 than our former team, but the fourth could neither step 

 nor go with the others. This horse we sold and put in 

 one fully as fast as the others. They were then one of 

 the fastest teams in London, and could step together like 

 soldiers : whereas before, they only seemed to have been 

 put together to be in each other's way. A short time 

 elapses! before meeting again, when the tables were com- 

 pletely turned. We were going through the park when 

 a team came by us at a good pace, and instantly recog- 

 nizing them as those we had exchanged, my employer 

 permitted them to get a few lengths in advance, then put 

 on the steam, caught him, and passed at a good fifeen 

 miles an hour. Had ^'Tam O'Shanter" on the gray mare, 

 or Scott the 'Mock," mounted on the ghost of Pegasus 

 passed, he would have been surprised, but his surprise 

 would have been tame compared with his perfect as- 

 tonishment at the matchless style of going and the pace 

 of his former bays, but so it was — he was beaten, and 

 that by his own horses. True, ore had been changed, but 

 this he did not know. The horse, taken out of the team. 



