124 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
By this time the Doctor knew that he must be near 
a considerable river, with high banks, which flowed 
through those parts, and very soon he heard the 
waters roaring on the rocks below. But now his 
horse came to a dead stop, refusing to cross the 
bridge. The Doctor urged him forward, and he took 
a few steps, but then moved back in his tracks. This 
was repeated twice. Finally, vexed at such unusual 
obstinacy in an animal long accustomed to rough and 
nocturnal travelling, the Doctor struck him with the 
whip. The horse squealed with disgust at this treat- 
ment, shook his head, advanced as before, and then 
backed again, and cast an inquiring glance behind him 
at his master. Now at last, the Doctor, dismount- 
ing, went forward to reconnoitre. And this is what 
he saw. The flooring of the bridge had been swept 
away completely by a flood; nothing was left but the 
sleepers running from bank to bank, and it was on one 
of these sleepers that the horse had walked out so far 
as he could with safety to the gig and its occupant. 
The obstructions half a mile and a mile back, which 
the roadster had jumped, were brush fences put up 
to stop travel on the highway until the bridge could 
be repaired. 
Now that we are in the vein, I trust that the read- 
er will pardon me if I relate another anecdote of a 
Morgan roadster. This was a chestnut mare belong- 
ing to an old and highly respected “ Vet.”? One very 
dark night the Doctor was driving toward home at a 
fast trot on a level road, and in his proper place on 
the right hand side of it. Presently he heard, though 
he could not see, a wagon approaching at a rapid rate 
1 Dr. Flagg, of New Bedford, Massachusetts. 
