DOWN THE ROAD 115 



the roof, and consumed oranges, shrimps, and other forms 

 of sustenance peculiar to the constitution of outside 

 passengers, were in the eyes of the exclusive "insides" a 

 species of pariah, whose very existence they would have 

 denied if it had not been so very forcibly demonstrated. 



Such was the animosity of those within to those with- 

 out, that even when seats were added to the roof, and in 

 consequence a better class of people took to travelling 

 thereon, they could by no means be permitted to eat their 

 meals in the same room as the exclusive insides, who 

 would have suffered a severe shock at the mere proposi- 

 tion. So also, if the interior of a coach was only partially 

 filled and a drowned or frozen outsider besought per- 

 mission to come within, his admittance rested with the 

 "insides." If one of them with some stirrings of humanity 

 gave his consent, the "outsider" was placed next to him, 

 and for the remainder of the journey he was looked upon 

 as self-appointed keeper of an uncivilized being, for whose 

 good behaviour he was considered responsible. 



To the schoolboys is due the credit of breaking down 

 this social barrier, for chiefly because it was forbidden, 

 and therefore doubly desirable, they discovered that the 

 outside of a coach was a far superior place to the inside. 

 Careful parents and masters booked places in the interior, 

 and bade their charges good-bye, with many admoni- 

 tions for their behaviour. These were listened to duti- 

 fully, and forgotten as soon as the coach turned the 

 corner, when the little rogues immediately scrambled on 

 to the roof of the coach. 



This point of vantage afforded them unqualified joy, 



