A VARMINT TEAJr. 63 



fifty-fi^'e minutes, allowing the coachman, guard, and 

 the pro temp, coachman five minutes to take some tea. 

 The next was a middle stage, and, as it is generally 

 managed in such situations, all the cripples of the 

 establishment were kept for this and the next stage, 

 each about six miles. Here, as is ahvays the case 

 where the coachman at one end devils them up, and 

 the one at the other devils them down, they had not 

 much waste. and spare on them, but in point of wind 

 they were fit to race ; not the vestige of a sound leg 

 among them; in short, had they attempted the 

 impossibility of trotting before they had got a little 

 on their legs they would have broken their necks ; 

 but four more wicked varmint-looking ones I never 

 saw: in fact, I should say they were one and all 

 thorough-bred. To look at their legs many would 

 suppose it would be impossible they could go. I can 

 only say, after being put to the coach, it was very 

 difficult to get them to stand still. One required a 

 man exclusively at her head, and amused herself by 

 kicking at the bars till she was off. None of these 

 wanted a word from a coachman at startino- • the 

 " right" from the guard was enough. Over the 

 whole stage not a horse wanted to feel the whip, or if 

 it was gently passed over him, he did not v/ant 

 telling twice. I do not exactly know what they 

 thought, but I thought they had made up their minds 

 to give their nevv^ coachman as great a " waking up" 

 as he had given the able-bodied ones ; they were 

 sound enough, for like many others, they were not 

 good enough to make themselves or be made otherwise. 

 For this they deserved as much credit as some most 

 chaste mortals who boast of their adherence to virtue, 

 when they are so merely because the blessed coolness of 



