There Were Three Or Four Such Omnibuses, And
As Many Wagons, As To Each Of Which I Predicted In My Own Mind Some
Fatal Catastrophe.
But they were all driven on to the boat in the
dark, the horses mixing in through each other in a chaos which would
have altogether incapacitated any English coachman.
And then the
vessel labored across the flood, going sideways, and hardly keeping
her own against the stream. But we did get over, and were all
driven out again, up to the railway station in safety. On reaching
the Mississippi about the middle of the next day, we found it frozen
over, or rather covered from side to side with blocks of ice which
had forced their way down the river, so that the steam-ferry could
not reach its proper landing. I do not think that we in England
would have attempted the feat of carrying over horses and carriages
under stress of such circumstances. But it was done here. Huge
plankings were laid down over the ice, and omnibuses and wagons were
driven on. In getting out again, these vehicles, each with four
horses, had to be twisted about, and driven in and across the
vessel, and turned in spaces to look at which would have broken the
heart of an English coachman. And then with a spring they were
driven up a bank as steep as a ladder! Ah me! under what mistaken
illusions have I not labored all the days of my youth, in supposing
that no man could drive four horses well but an English stage
coachman!
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