Towards Evening We Would Be Bundled Back Into The Trap And Driven
Home.
Then, when the day came round for the return visit, Mr. Royd
would bundle his family into their "carriage,
" Which he, without being
a carriage-builder or even a carpenter, had made with his own hands.
It had four solid wooden wheels about a yard in diameter, and upright
wooden sides about four or five feet high. It was springless and
without seats, and had a long pole to which two horses were fastened,
and Estanislao, mounted on one, would thrash them into a gallop and
carry the thing bounding over the roadless plain. The fat lady and
other passengers were saved from being bumped to death by several
mattresses, pillows, and cushions heaped inside. It was the strangest,
most primitive conveyance I ever saw, except the one commonly used by
a gaucho to take his wife on a visit to a neighbour's house when she
was in a delicate condition or too timid to ride on a horse or not
well enough off to own a side-saddle. This was a well-stretched, dried
horse-hide, with a lasso attached at one end to the head or fore-part
of the hide and the other end to the gaucho's horse, as a rule to the
surcingle. A stool or cushion was placed in the centre of the big hide
for the lady to sit on, and when she had established herself on it the
man would whip up his horse and away he would gallop, dragging the
strange conveyance after him - a sight which filled the foreigner with
amazement.
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