"No," said he.
"More's the pity!" said I, and was about to turn away, when he
drew the nearest fist abruptly from his pocket, and extended it
towards me.
"Look at that!" he commanded.
"Rather dirty," I commented, "but otherwise a good, useful member,
I make no doubt."
"It's a-goin'," said he, alternately drawing in and shooting out
the fist in question, "it's a-goin' to fill your eye up."
"Is it?" said I.
"Ah!" said he.
"But what for?"
"I aren't a Semmy, nor yet a Quaver, an' as for Friers," said he,
very deliberately, "why--Frier yourself, says I."
"Nevertheless," said I, "you are gifted with a certain terse
directness of speech that greatly reminds me of--"
"Joe!" he called out suddenly over his shoulder. "Mail, Joe!"
Lifting my eyes to the brow of the hill, I could see nothing save
a faint haze, which, however, gradually grew denser and thicker;
and out from this gathering cloud, soft, and faint with distance,
stole the silvery notes of a horn. Now I saw the coach itself,
and, as I watched it rapidly descending the hill, I longed to be
upon it, with the sun above, the smooth road below, and the wind
rushing through my hair. On it came at a gallop, rocking and
swaying, a good fifteen miles an hour; on it came, plunging into
the green shade of trees, and out into the sun again, with ever
the gathering dust cloud behind; while clear and high rang the
cheery note of the horn. And now, from the cool shadows of the
inn yard, there rose a prodigious stamping of hoofs, rattling of
chains, and swearing of oaths, and out came four fresh horses,
led by two men, each of whom wore topboots, a striped waistcoat,
and chewed upon straws.
And now the coach swung round the bend, and came thundering down
upon "The Chequers," chains jingling, wheels rumbling, horn braying
and, with a stamp and ring of hoof, pulled up before the inn.
And then what a running to and fro! what a prodigious unbuckling
and buckling of straps, while the jovial-faced coachman fanned
himself with his hat; and swore jovially at the ostlers, and the
ostlers swore back at the coachman, and the guard, and the coach,
and the horses, individually and collectively; in the midst of
which confusion, down came the window with a bang, and out of the
window came a flask, and a hand, and an arm, and, last of all, a
great, fat face, round, and mottled, and roaring as it came: "Oho--I say damn it! damn everybody's eyes and bones--brandy!
O yoho, house--I say brandy! Guard, landlord, ostlers--brandy,
d'ye hear? I say, what the devil! Am I to die for want of a
drop of brandy? Oho!"