by a furious race between the two yailis, and we were tossed about beyond all possibility of further talk. When, however, the boys had won the first heat, I begged to be excused from trying to secure our revenge, as the carriages did not seem solid enough for racing.
Then behold, at the word, one of our wheels flew off! And, though we were mercifully taking a saunter "between rounds" at the moment, we had to follow our belongings into the mud and do what we could to help the wheelwright.
The American, I found, had been teaching himself the language, and claims to have read Nasreddin Hodja in the original. Now he hastened to improve the occasion by the most voluble congratulations to our unmoved drivers. "This wheel evidently knew how to choose the 'psychological moment' for its detachment," he exclaimed. "On the edge of a mountain, we should all have been pitched into the depths; crossing a river, our lady passenger, who cannot swim, would have been drowned; during the race, we could not have avoided a fatal collision. If it had to happen, it could not have happened more wisely!"
The job is finished at last; maybe hastened by such lively chatter; but I confess we did not feel really secure. In fact, the prudent suggestion that one of us should hold the reins while our driver "kept an eye on" the wheel was soon justified by a second flying away of that "offending member." It was this time discovered that something must be found to enlarge the circumference of the axle to keep it fixed, and I immediately offered my pocket-handkerchief. Our driver, however, would not hear of "depriving me" and so I begged the American "not to disturb him, but to see how he would contrive." Though obviously puzzled for a few minutes, he soon justified my confidence by cutting off a good handful of hair from the horse's mane, and thus "fixing" the wheel once more.
"That's all very ingenious," laughed my companion, "but 'hair' won't 'wear.'"
