COACHMEN e-j 



and two of them once proposed to Joe Stephens that 

 they should have a competition as to who could compose 

 the best piece of poetry before the coach reached the 

 Chequers Inn at Whitway. The gentlemen soon made 

 theirs, but Stephen found poetry a far tougher job than 

 driving a coach, and they were within a hundred yards 

 of the Chequers Inn when he saw two pigs belonging to 

 Mr. Perkins, the landlord, which gave him an idea. 



"Gentlemen," he announced, "I am ready," and at 

 once repeated this oration: 



"Mr. Perkins had two pigs 



As fine as one another, 

 Robin Hood was one's name, 



Little John t'other." 



"Eravo!" cried the hugely amused passengers. "You 

 have fairly beaten us and shall have the prize." 



Stephens did not come off quite so well another time 

 when he had a gay young spark on the box to whom 

 he gave tuition in driving, to the no small alarm and 

 apprehension of a Quaker on the seat behind. Anxious 

 to show off, Stephens pointed to a tree and said: 



"Now if I was to set these horses at full gallop, do you 

 think I could pull them up before we got to that tree?" 



The box-seat passenger, seeing that he was expefted 

 to reply in the negative, declared that such a thing 

 would be impossible. 



The coachman immediately set his team off at full 

 speed, the coach rocked, and the Quaker held on for dear 



life. 



