FOUR IN HAND. 145 



good, have a certain amount of work to keep the pole 

 straight — ^in fact, the wheelers are always kept busy. 

 It is, therefore, advisable when going up hill to let the 

 leaders do their own share and a little more. I remem- 

 ber once travelling by a coach and observing the two 

 wheel horses, both fine looking powerful grays, that 

 the near horse had not once tightened his traces for 

 upwards of two miles, and on my saying "I suppose 

 he was making up his mind as to when he should set to 

 work" the coachman laughed and said "his time is very 

 near up now, sir." He said true enough. In another 

 half-mile I saw a hill before us. A couple of hundred 

 yards before we came to it the gray horse sprang into a 

 gallop and the others joined, and this horse certainly 

 took half jthe coach to the very top of the hill. The 

 remainder of the stage was aU against collar and the 

 gray never wanted a word said to him the whole way, 

 in fact he was a horse and a half until we changed, 

 and his comrade about one-fourth of one. I am ready 

 to allow that those two wheelers were not such as a 

 man of fortune would select for his team, but in their 

 place they were both good ones. 



In riding on a box sometimes if a man is one of the 

 sortl — I should call him one of the right sort — ^he 

 may probably see one or more of the team merely 

 carrying the harness. He must not infer because the 



