DIFFERENT OPINIONS OF A BUGGY-HORSE. 120 



out being held : he could rate eighteen miles an hour, 

 I mean go at that rate : we were, perhaps, going at 

 thirteen. My friend, seeing the horse pulling a little, 

 asked if he would run away ? to his horror I replied, 

 that " he was very well disposed to do so if I would 

 let him." Had I been going six miles an hour, out 

 my friend would have bolted : as it was, he looked 

 very wistfully at the road. I, mischievously enough, 

 determined to give him the power of saying he had 

 once sat behind a fast one : a turn of the wrist was 

 enough ; no word or other signal was wanted. I looked 

 at my friend — did he call out ? no: he could not speak : 

 he held fast by the side of the buggy. I pulled up into 

 the old pace. " Let me out," were the first words he 

 said, in so beseeching a tone that I laughed outright. 

 On my faithfully promising not to exceed seven miles 

 an hour, if, as he called my favourite horse, that devil 

 incarnate would go at that pace, he sat still, and I 

 drove him home. After dinner he asked " how I 

 could drive such a runaway beast ? " — " Did he run 

 away ? " asked I. — " No," said he, " but you owned 

 he would if you would let him." — "My good friend," 

 said I, "in saying he would run away, I was wrong, 

 for I never knew him attempt it, and he has a good 

 mouth ; but I will tell you what to a certainty he 

 would do at any moment if not prevented : he would 

 go faster and faster in his trot, break into a gallop, 

 and then would most assuredly go as hard as he could 

 lay his legs to the ground, which is a pretty good pace 

 I can tell you." My friend assured me, from what 1 

 said, he would not take a horse disposed to do this as 

 a present : " Nor would I," said I, " one that would 

 not, though 1 should no more like a runaway in 

 single-harness than yourself." Now the difference of 



VOL. II. K 



