arning to me if I had had sense
enough to profit by it. Just as I sat down, and took the reins, and
was going to observe what he would do, he suddenly went away at full
gallop. I tried to pull him in, but he put his chin against his
chest, and the harder I pulled the faster he flew. The road was full
of ruts, and I was bumped up and down very badly. My hat went away,
but, for the present, my head kept its place. I managed to steer
safely as far as the bridge across the Tarra but, in going over it,
the horse's hoofs and whirling wheels sounded like thunder, and
brought out the whole population of Tarraville to look at me. It was
on a Sunday afternoon; some good people were singing hymns in the
local chapel, and as I passed the turn of the road, they left the
anxious benches, came outside in a body, and gazed at me, a
bare-headed and miserable Sabbath-breaker going swiftly to perdition.
I also was on a very anxious bench. But now there was a long stretch
of good road before me, and I made good use of it. Instead of
pulling the horse in, I let him go, and encouraged him with the whip
to go faster, being determined to let him gallop until either he or
the sun went down. Then the despicable wretch slackened his pace,
and wanted to come to terms. So I wheeled him round and whipped him
without mercy, making him gallop all the way home again. I did not
buy him.

But the next horse I tried was comparatively blameless, so I bought
him, and at the end of the first month sent in a claim to the Law
Department for the usual allowance. I was curtly informed that the
amount had been reduced from fifty pounds to ten pounds for my horse,
although sixty pounds was still allowed to the other horse for
travelling the same distance, the calculation evidently being based
on the supposition that the police magistrate's horse would eat six
times as much as mine. Remonstrance was vain, and I found I had
burdened myself with an animal, possessing no social or political
influence whatever. I knew already that the world was governed
without wisdom, and I now felt that it was also ruled with extreme
meanness.

And even after my horse was condemned to starve on ten pounds per
annum, the cost of justice was still extravagant. Without reckoning
the expense incurred in erecting and maintaining three court houses,
and three police stations, and paying three policemen for doing next
to nothing, I ascertained from the cause lists that it