go a little faster--"Oh,"
said the driver, "you do, do you; well, wait a moment, and I'll go
faster than you like." The fellow drove very slow where the road was
good; but as soon as he came to a bad piece, he put his horses to the
gallop, and, as my friend said, they were so tossed and tumbled about,
that they hardly knew where they were. "Is that fast enough, Mister,"
said the driver, leering in at the couch window.

As for stopping, they will stop to talk to any one on the road about the
price of the markets, the news, or any thing else; and the same
accommodation is cheerfully given to any passenger who has any business
to transact on the way. The Americans are accustomed to it, and the
passengers never raise any objections. There is a spirit of
accommodation, arising from their natural good temper (note 2).

I was once in a coach when the driver pulled up, and entered a small
house on the road side; after he had been there some time, as it was not
an inn, I expressed my wonder what he was about. "I guess I can tell
you," said a man who was standing by the coach, and overheard me;
"there's a pretty girl in that house, and he's doing a bit of courting,
I expect." Such was the fact: the passengers laughed, and waited for
him very patiently. He remained about three-quarters of an hour, and
then came out. The time was no doubt to him very short; but to us it
appeared rather tedious.

Mrs Jamieson, in her last work, says: "One dark night, I remember, as
the sleet and rain were falling fast, and our Extra was slowly dragged
by wretched brutes of horses through what seemed to me `Sloughs of
Despond,' some package ill stowed on the roof, which in the American
stages presents no resting-place for man or box, fell off. The driver
alighted to fish it out of the mud. As there was some delay, a
gentleman seated opposite to me put his head out of window to inquire
the cause; to whom the driver's voice replied, in an angry tone, `I say,
you mister, don't you sit jabbering there; but lend a hand to heave
these things aboard!' To my surprise, the gentleman did not appear
struck by the insolence of this summons, but immediately jumped out and
rendered his assistance. This is merely the _manner_ of the people.
The driver intended no insolence, nor was it taken as such; and my
fellow-travellers could not help laughing at my surprise."

I have mentioned these little anecdotes, as they may amuse the reader;
but it must b