t team of horses on the road. He used to always drive them
hisself. He was always a kind man to every one and everythink about him.
He drove three blood coachers abreast and two lighter ones, Butterfly
and Fairy, in the lead. Weren't them days! That great coach swingin'
round the curves and sidlings in the dark, I fancy I can feel the reins
between me fingers now! And there was always a lot of jolly fellows, and
usedn't they to cheer me w'en the horses 'u'd play up a bit. It was
considered wonderful for me to manage such a team. I was only a slight
slip of a girl, not near so fat as Dawn; she takes more after her
grandfather. Me and me sisters had no lack of sweethearts, and we didn't
run after them neither. Some people make me that mad the way they run
after people and lick their boots. W'en I'd be drivin' with me father,
Jim Clay used to be with his, but he was some years older than me. He
wanted to enter the drivin' business soon as opportunity came, an' him
an' me were sort of rivals like. Many of the young swells used to bring
me necklaces and brooches, but somehow when Jim Clay only brought me a
pocket-handkerchief or a lump of ribbon I liked it better an' kep' it
away in a little scented box an' I was supposed to be in love with a
good many in them days. _Some people_ always knows other's business
better than they do theirselves. Me two sisters got married soon as they
were eighteen--one to a thrivin' young squatter, an' the other to a rich
old banker. Seein' how she got on is what makes me agen old men marryin'
young girls. It ain't natural. A man might marry a girl a few years
younger than hisself, but there must be reason in everythink. I was
older than me sisters, an' people began to twit me an' say I'd be left
on the shelf, but before this, w'en I was sixteen an' Jim Clay twenty,
me father broke his leg and was put by. All his trouble was his horses;
he fretted an' fretted that they'd be spoilt by a careless driver, an'
he had 'em trained so they knew nothing but kindness. I was only too
willin', and I up an' undertook to drive the coach right through. Old
Jack Clay said he'd come with me a turn or two an' leave Jim to take his
team, but just then he had some terrible new horses that no one could
handle but hisself,--he was a wonderful hand with horses was Jim's
father,--so Jim was sent with me. My, wasn't there a cheer when I first
brought the mail in all on me own!" The old face flashed forth a
radiance as s