nd not very comfortable except on
the box-seat next the driver. Fortunately, this is made to hold three,
so F---- and I scrambled up, and off we started with four good strong
horses, bearing less harness about them than any quadrupeds I ever saw;
a small collar, slender traces, and very thin reins comprised all their
accoutrements. The first half of the journey was slow, but there was no
jolting. The road was level, though it had not been made at all,
only the tussocks removed from it; but it was naturally good--a great
exception to New Zealand roads. The driver was a steady, respectable
man, very intelligent; and when F----could make him talk of his
experiences in Australia in the early coaching days, I was much
interested.

We crossed the Rakaia and the Rangitata in ferry-boats, and stopped on
the banks of the Ashburton, to dine about one o'clock, having changed
horses twice since we started from "Gigg's," as our place of junction
was elegantly called. Here all my troubles began. When we came out of
the little inn, much comforted and refreshed by a good dinner, I found
to my regret that we were to change drivers as well as horses, and that
a very popular and well known individual was to be the new coachman.
As our former driver very politely assisted me to clamber up on the
box-seat, he recommended F---- to sit on the outside part of the seat,
and to put me next the driver, "where," he added, "the lady won't be
so likely to tumble out." As I had shown no disposition to fall off
the coach hitherto, I was much astonished by this precaution, but said
nothing. So he was emboldened to whisper, after looking round furtively,
"And you jest take and don't be afraid, marm; _he_ handles the ribbings
jest as well when he's had a drop too much as when he's sober, which
ain't often, however." This last caution alarmed me extremely. The
horses were not yet put in, nor the driver put _up_, so I begged F----
to get down and see if I could not go inside. But, after a hasty survey,
he, said it was quite impossible: men smoking, children crying, and,
in addition, a policeman with a lunatic in his charge, made the inside
worse than the outside, especially in point of atmosphere; so he
repeated the substance of our ex-driver's farewell speech; and when I
saw our new charioteer emerge at last from the bar, looking only very
jovial and tolerably steady as to gait, I thought perhaps my panic was
premature. But, oh, what a time I had of it fo