s the
moment I saw it was him."

The tandem had by this time reached the race-course, and the disaster
which Tom had hardly thought worth noticing in his lively description of
the sport, sure enough had befallen the _new 'patent Safety_, which was
about mid way between an upright and a side position, supported by the
high and very strong quicksett-hedge against which it hath fallen. Our
heroes dismounted, left Flip at the leader's head, and with Ned, the
other groom, proceeded to offer their services. Whilst engaged in
extricating the horses, which had become entangled in their harness, and
were kicking and plunging, their attention was arrested by the screams
and outrageous vociferations of a very fat, middle-aged woman, who
had ~11~~been jerked from her seat on the box to one not quite so
smooth--the top of the hedge, which, with the assistance of an old alder
tree, supported the coach. Tom found it impossible to resist the violent
impulse to risibility which the ludicrous appearance of the old lady
excited, and as no serious injury was sustained, determined to enjoy the
fun.

"If e'er a pleasant mischief sprang to view,
At once o'er hedge and ditch away he flew,
Nor left the game till he had run it down."

Approaching her with all the gravity of countenance he was master
of--"Madam," says he, "are we to consider you as one of the Sylvan
Deities who preside over these scenes, or connected in any way with the
vehicle?"--"Wehicle, indeed, you _hunhuman-brutes_, instead of assisting
a poor distressed female who has been chuck'd from top of that there
_safety-thing_, as they calls it, into such a dangerous _pisition_, you
must be chuckling and grinning, must you? I only wish my husband, Mr.
Giblet, was here, he should soon wring your necks, and pluck some of
your fine feathers for you, and make you look as foolish as a peacock
without his tail." Mrs. Giblet's ire at length having subsided, she was
handed down in safety on _terra firma_, and our heroes transferred their
assistance to the other passengers. The violence of the concussion had
burst open the coach-door on one side, and a London _Dandy_, of the
exquisite genus, lay in danger of being pressed to a jelly beneath the
weight of an infirm and very stout old farmer, whom they had pick'd up
on the road; and it was impossible to get at, so as to afford relief to
the sufferers, till the coach was raised in a perpendicular position.
The