the night, with his family at home in the black tent out on the
shadeless bosom of the desert, as his children beloved. That they
might win him a triumph over the haughty and hated Roman, the old
man had brought his loves to the city, never doubting they would
win, if only he could find a trusty expert to take them in hand;
not merely one with skill, but of a spirit which their spirits
would acknowledge. Unlike the colder people of the West, he could
not protest the driver's inability, and dismiss him civilly;
an Arab and a sheik, he had to explode, and rive the air about
him with clamor.

Before the patriarch was done with his expletives, a dozen hands
were at the bits of the horses, and their quiet assured. About that
time, another chariot appeared upon the track; and, unlike the
others, driver, vehicle, and races were precisely as they would
be presented in the Circus the day of final trial. For a reason
which will presently be more apparent, it is desirable now to
give this turnout plainly to the reader.

There should be no difficulty in understanding the carriage known
to us all as the chariot of classical renown. One has but to picture
to himself a dray with low wheels and broad axle, surmounted by a box
open at the tail end. Such was the primitive pattern. Artistic genius
came along in time, and, touching the rude machine, raised it into
a thing of beauty--that, for instance, in which Aurora, riding in
advance of the dawn, is given to our fancy.

The jockeys of the ancients, quite as shrewd and ambitious as their
successors of the present, called their humblest turnout a two,
and their best in grade a four; in the latter, they contested the
Olympics and the other festal shows founded in imitation of them.

The same sharp gamesters preferred to put their horses to the chariot
all abreast; and for distinction they termed the two next the pole
yoke-steeds, and those on the right and left outside trace-mates.
It was their judgment, also, that, by allowing the fullest freedom
of action, the greatest speed was attainable; accordingly, the harness
resorted to was peculiarly simple; in fact, there was nothing of
it save a collar round the animal's neck, and a trace fixed to
the collar, unless the lines and a halter fall within the term.
Wanting to hitch up, the masters pinned a narrow wooden yoke,
or cross-tree, near the end of the pole, and, by straps passed
through rings at the end of the yoke, buckled the latter