ce on my right, the rock on my left, and a devil
before me, going, like a cannon-ball, right down the hill. However, I
contrived, as I said I would, to manage him; kept the car from the rock
and from the edge of the gulf too. Well, just when we had come to the
bottom of the hill out comes the people running from the inn, almost
covering the road.

"'Now get out of the way,' I shouts, 'if you don't wish to see your
brains knocked out, and what would be worse, mine too.'

"So they gets out of the way, and on I spun, I and my devil. But by this
time I had nearly taken the devil out of him. Well, he hadn't gone fifty
yards on the level ground, when, what do you think he did? why, went
regularly over, tumbled down regularly on the road, even as I knew he
would some time or other, because why? he was pigeon-toed. Well, I gets
out of the gig, and no sooner did Mr So-and-so come up than I says--

"'I likes your car very well, and I likes your harness, but--me if I
likes your horse, and it will be some time before you persuade me to
drive him again.'"

I am a great lover of horses, and an admirer of good driving, and should
have wished to have some conversation with this worthy person about
horses and their management. I should also have wished to ask him some
questions about Wales and the Welsh, as he must have picked up a great
deal of curious information about both in his forty years' traffic,
notwithstanding he did not know a word of Welsh, but John Jones prevented
my further tarrying by saying, that it would be as well to get over the
mountain before it was entirely dark. So I got up, paid for my ale,
vainly endeavoured to pay for that of my companion, who insisted upon
paying for what he had ordered, made a general bow and departed from the
house, leaving the horse-dealer and the rest staring at each other and
wondering who we were, or at least who I was. We were about to ascend
the hill when John Jones asked me whether I should not like to see the
bridge and the river. I told him I should. The bridge and the river
presented nothing remarkable. The former was of a single arch; and the
latter anything but abundant in its flow.

We now began to retrace our steps over the mountain. At first the mist
appeared to be nearly cleared away. As we proceeded, however, large
sheets began to roll up the mountain sides, and by the time we reached
the summit were completely shrouded in vapour. The night, however, was
n