Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/175

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DICKENS ON PIONEER ROADS
171

chuckling very much. 'Outside gentleman sa, he often remember old 'ooman at home sa,' grinning again.

"'Aye aye, we'll take care of the old woman. Don't be afraid.'

"The black driver grins again, but there is another hole, and beyond that, another bank, close before us. So he stops short: cries (to the horses again) 'Easy. Easy den. Ease. Steady. Hi. Jiddy. Pill. Ally. Loo!' but never 'Lee!' until we are reduced to the very last extremity, and are in the midst of difficulties, extrication from which appears to be all but impossible.

"And so we do the ten miles or thereabouts in two hours and a half; breaking no bones though bruising a great many; and in short getting through the distance, 'like a fiddle.'

"This singular kind of coaching terminates at Fredericksburgh, whence there is a railway to Richmond. . ."

Dickens, the student of human nature, surely found vast material for inspection and observation in our American coaches. The drivers particularly attracted his attention as we have seen; their philosophical