Here he began to rear like a
very devil.
"'Oh dear me!' says Mr So-and-so; 'let me get out!'
"'Keep where you are,' says I, 'I can manage him.'
"However, Mr So-and-so would not be ruled, and got out; coming
down, not on his legs, but his hands and knees. And then the two
others said -
"'Let us get out!'
"'Keep where you are,' said I, 'I can manage him.'
"But they must needs get out, or rather tumble out, for they both
came down on the road, hard on their backs.
"'Get out yourself,' said they all, 'and let the devil go, or you
are a done man.'
"'Getting out may do for you young hands,' says I, 'but it won't do
for I; neither my back nor bones will stand the hard road.'
"Mr So-and-so ran to the horse's head.
"'Are you mad?' says I, 'if you try to hold him he'll be over the
pree-si-pice in a twinkling, and then where am I? Give him head; I
can manage him.'
"So Mr So-and-so got out of the way, and down flew the horse right
down the descent, as fast as he could gallop. I tell you what, I
didn't half like it! A pree-si-pice on my right, the rock on my
left, and a devil before me, going, like a cannon-ball, right down
the hill. However, I contrived, as I said I would, to manage him;
kept the car from the rock and from the edge of the gulf too.
Well, just when we had come to the bottom of the hill out comes the
people running from the inn, almost covering the road.
"'Now get out of the way,' I shouts, 'if you don't wish to see your
brains knocked out, and what would be worse, mine too.'
"So they gets out of the way, and on I spun, I and my devil. But
by this time I had nearly taken the devil out of him. Well, he
hadn't gone fifty yards on the level ground, when, what do you
think he did? why, went regularly over, tumbled down regularly on
the road, even as I knew he would some time or other, because why?
he was pigeon-toed. Well, I gets out of the gig, and no sooner did
Mr So-and-so come up than I says -
"'I likes your car very well, and I likes your harness, but - me if
I likes your horse, and it will be some time before you persuade me
to drive him again.'"
