I had three fine rosy-cheeked
boys for my fellow-passengers inside, full of the buxom health and
manly spirit which I have observed in the children of this country.
They were returning home for the holidays in high glee, and
promising themselves a world of enjoyment. It was delightful to hear
the gigantic plans of the little rogues, and the impracticable feats
they were to perform during their six weeks' emancipation from the
abhorred thraldom of book, birch, and pedagogue. They were full of
anticipations of the meeting with the family and household, down to
the very cat and dog; and of the joy they were to give their little
sisters by the presents with which their pockets were crammed; but the
meeting to which they seemed to look forward with the greatest
impatience was with Bantam, which I found to be a pony, and, according
to their talk, possessed of more virtues than any steed since the days
of Bucephalus. How he could trot! how he could run! and then such
leaps as he would take- there was not a hedge in the whole country
that he could not clear.
They were under the particular guardianship of the coachman, to
whom, whenever an opportunity presented, they addressed a host of
questions, and pronounced him one of the best fellows in the world.
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