Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/86

46 46 POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OV

" Of course," said Mr, Snodgrass.

" I ! " exclaimed Mr. Pickwick. , « Not the slightest fear, Sir," interposed the hostler. ' Warrant him quiet. Sir ; a hinfant in arms might drive him."

" He don't shy, does he ? " inquired Mr. Pickwick.

"Shy, Sir? — He wouldn't shy if he was to meet a vaggin-load of monkeys, with their tails burnt off."

The last recommendation was indisputable. Mr. Tupman and Mr. Snodgrass got into the bin ; Mr. Pickwick ascended to his perch, and deposited his feet on a floor-clothed shelf, erected beneath it, for that purpose.

" Now, shiny Villiam," said the hostler to the deputy hostler, " give the gen'lm'n the ribbins." " Shiny Villiam"— so called, probably, from his sleek hair and oily countenance— placed the reins in Mr. Pickwick's left hand ; and the upper hostler thrust a whip into his right.

" Woo," cried Mr. Pickwick, as the tall quadruped evinced a decided inclination to back into the coffee-room window.

" Wo — o," echoed Mr. Tupman and Mr. Snodgrass, from the bin.

" Only his playfulness, gen'lm'n," said the head hostler, encouragingly, " jist kitch hold on him, Villiam." The deputy restrained the animal's impetuosity, and the principal ran to assist Mr. Winkle in mounting,

" T'other side. Sir, if you please."

" Blowed if the gen'lm'n worn't a gettin' up on the wrong side," whispered a grinning post-boy, to the inexpressibly gratified waiter.

Mr. Winkle, thus instructed, climbed into his saddle, with about as much diflficulty as he would have experienced in getting up the side of a first-rate man-of-war.

" All right ? " inquired Mr. Pickwick, with an inward presentiment that it was all wrong.

" All right,'' replied Mr. Winkle faintly.

" Let 'em go," cried the hostler, — " Hold him in. Sir;" and away went the chaise, and the saddle horse, with Mr. Pickwick on the box of the one, and Mr. Winkle on the back of the other, to the delight and gratification of the whole inn yard.

" What makes him go sideways ? " said Mr. Snodgrass in the bin, to Mr. Winkle in the saddle.

" I can't imagine," replied Mr. Winkle. His horse was going up the street in the most mysterious manner — side first, with his head towards one side of the way, and his tail to the other.

Mr. Pickwick had no leisure to observe either this, or any other par- ticular, the whole of his faculties being concentrated in the manage- ment of the animal attached to the chaise, who displayed various peculiarities, highly interesting to a by-stander, but by no means equally amusing to any one seated behind him. Besides constantly jerking his head up, in a very unpleasant and uncomfortable manner, and tugging at the reins to an extent which rendered it a matter of great difi&culty for Mr. Pickwick to hold them, he had a singular pro- pensity for darting suddenly every now and then to the side of the road, then stopping short, and then rushing forward for some minuies, at a speed which it was wholly impossible to control.