so bright and
the air so fresh that the horses tossed their heads, and their hoofs
rang out as they hurried over the hard road.

The road ran through the wood, and Joseph could see the maples with
their wide-spreading branches, and the poplar with its arms held up to
the sky, and the birches with their white dresses, all nodding in the
wind, as though they said, "How do you do?" Once, too, he saw a little
squirrel running about, and once a queer rabbit.

Then the stage-coach stopped with a jerk.

"What's the matter?" called Joseph's papa, as the driver and the guard
got down.

"The linch-pin has fallen out," answered the driver, "and we have just
missed losing a wheel."

"Can we go on?" Joseph asked. And when his papa said "No," he felt
sorry. But the guard said that he would go after a wheelwright who lived
not far beyond; and Joseph and his papa walked about until the
wheelwright came running, with his tools in his hand.

He set to work, and Joseph thought it was very funny that the great
wheel could not stay on without the linch-pin; but the wheelwright said
that the smallest screws counted. He put the wheel quickly in order, and
off the stage-coach went.

The wheels whirled around all the more merrily because of the
wheelwright's work; and when the hoofs of the horses clattered on the
road, Joseph's papa said that the horse-shoes were saying:--

"It is the little shoes, the little shoes, that help the horse to go!"

Then Joseph looked down at his own small shoes and thought of his
mother's letter, and the little boy that she needed to hunt eggs and
feed chickens and rock the baby's cradle; and he was anxious to get
home.

Clip, clap! clip, clap! The horses stepped on a bridge, and Joseph
looked out to see the water. The bridge was strong and good, with great
wooden piers set out in the water and a stout wooden railing to make it
safe.

The sun was high and shining very brightly on the water, and little
Joseph began to nod. He rested his head on papa's arm, and his eyelids
dropped down over his two sleepy eyes, and he went so fast asleep that
his papa was obliged to give him a little shake when he wanted to wake
him up.

"Wake up, Joseph! wake up!" he cried, "and look out of the window!"

Joseph rubbed his eyes and looked out of the window; and he saw a red
cow, a black cow, and a cow with spots on her back; and a little further
on, a big boy and a baby; and, what do you think?--yes, a mamma! Then