approach with joyous tootings, a bridle of
steel wire by which it is steered in combination with pressure on
a lever by means of the feet of the steersman, and also with a
curious brake which consists of a nail studded board so rigged to
the rear sled that the last man can drop it down to the ice and
anchor it by the grip of the nails, thereby retarding its speed.
The steersman on the mammoth Ponkapoag bob-sled steered by a rope
bridle and the use of his feet on a stout wooden cross-bar, and
his position was no sinecure. He had at least a ton of people on
board and he had no brake.

After the leviathan slid over the brow of the hill and began its
downward course there could be no slowing up, no backward sled
tracks, till the end of the course was reached. He must negotiate
the curve at Captain Bill Tucker's corner at lightning speed and
must rightly manage the mass in mighty momentum after that, if he
would not spill them all in Ponkapoag brook. The big Ponkapoag
bob-sled needed no bugle to herald its coming. When it started off
and especially when it swung the curve at Captain Bill's the
mingled melody of delight and dismay, masculine and feminine,
could easily be heard a mile, and throughout the course the chant
of the coasters carried runic warning well ahead of the
approaching thunderbolt. In the legend of it all I find no mention
of anyone being hurt.

A great if not famous inventor once lived in Ponkapoag. James
Basin came from one of the Channel Islands, a French Huguenot,
with his family, and settled in the little village; it would be
hard to tell why. He invented the "Basin trumpet," a curious kind
of cornet with which one gets change of pitch by turning a crank
with one hand while holding the instrument to the mouth with the
other. This was played in the choir in the Congregational church
of those early days. He invented many other musical instruments,
one the forerunner of the cabinet organ which made a fortune for
certain New Englanders. He invented a braiding machine which has
since his day made millions for Rhode Island factories. It may be
that he invented the strangest form of double-runner that I have
heard of, and which was used on Ponkapoag Hill, but I fancy not.
That I guess was an inspiration worked out on the spat by some
hardy Yankee. It consisted of a great wood-sled on which half the
village could be accommodated. This was hauled by horses to the
top of the hill, a boy of more than ordinary