o8 
t’othek holds t'other up. 
True, it only had two wheels: hut then an ox-cart has 
no more; and it is a well-known fact that this latter can- 
not tilt backwards — turn a half back-somerset — without 
cntailincr serious inconvenience on the oxen that draw it. 
“Yes, hut oxen arc yoked, and horses are hitched,'" 
remarks the skeptic. 
“Xot always, by any nioans,” is my reply. The oxen 
with us are yoked to their carts, and at the Cape the carts 
are yolced to the horses ; that’s the only difference. It sounds 
singular, truly; yet, let us see how they accomplish it. 
In our case, the four animals were hitched up exactly 
as four horses are generally attached to a wagon, with the 
siimle addition of a curved and flat bar of iron, which 
was secured to the pole just back of the fore-legs of the 
aftcr-oncs, and which fit under them just as snugly as 
the half of a hoop w'ould around a barrel. 
And thus much for the ingenious peculiarities of the 
“mail-coach” that ran daily between Simon’s Town and 
Capo Town, and in Avhich we were induced to “make 
ourselves comfortable” when we saw that there was no 
help for it. 
It was not long before I was struck with the ingenious- 
ncss of the foregoing device for preserving the parallelism 
of two planes ; but I could not help hinting to Peter of a 
fear which had arisen with it in my mind as to the con- 
sequences which might result in case of a stumble. 
“ Lord bless you, sir !” was his reply: “ vy, that’s the 
very time ven it comes in. Don’t you see, it a’n’t likely as 
how they’ll both fall atoncet? and so t’other holds t’other 
up.” I Avas struck with the force of his argument, and, 
lighting a cigar, began to make notes of things in general 
