le underlay of chalk, which (if you perceive my
meaning) can not retain any damp, but transmits it into sweet natural
wells. Why, driver, where the devil are you driving us?"

"No fear, your honor. I know every trick of it. It won't come over
the wheels, I do believe, and it does all the good in the world to his
sand-cracks. Whoa-ho, my boy, then! And the young lady's feet might
go up upon the cushion, if her boots is thin, Sir; and Mr. Rasper will
excuse of it."

"What the"--something hot--"do you mean, Sir?" the Major roared over
the water, which seemed to be deepening as we went on. "Pull out this
instant; pull out, I tell you, or you shall have three months' hard
labor. May I be d----d now--my dear, I beg your pardon for speaking with
such sincerity--I simply mean, may I go straightway to the devil, if I
don't put this fellow on the tread-mill. Oh, you can pull out now, then,
can you?"

"If your honor pleases, I never did pull in," the poor driver answered,
being frightened at the excitement of the lord of the manor. "My orders
was, miss, to drive along the line coming on now just to Bruntsea, and
keep in the middle of that same I did, and this here little wet is a
haxident--a haxident of the full moon, I do assure you, and the wind
coming over the sea, as you might say. These pebbles is too round, miss,
to stick to one another; you couldn't expect it of them; and sometimes
the water here and there comes a-leaking like through the bottom. I have
seed it so, ever since I can remember."

"I don't believe a word of it," the Major said, as we waited a little
for the vehicle to drain, and I made a nosegay of the bright sea
flowers. "Tell me no lies, Sir; you belong to the West Bruntseyans, and
you have driven us into a vile bog to scare me. They have bribed you.
I see the whole of it. Tell me the truth, and you shall have five
shillings."

The driver looked over the marshes as if he had never received such
an offer before. Five shillings for a falsehood would have seemed the
proper thing, and have called for a balance of considerations, and made
a demand upon his energies. But to earn five shillings by the truth had
never fallen to his luck before; and he turned to me, because I smiled,
and he said, "Will you taste the water, miss?"

"Bless me!" cried the Major, "now I never thought of that. Common people
have such ways about things they are used to! I might have stood
here for a month, and never have thought of t