I don't think he ever knew
what had happened to him. I couldn't look round to see what became
of him; I only saw him start. Half-way down the hill a policeman
holla'd to me to stop. I heard him shouting out something about
furious driving. Half-a-mile this side of Chesham we came upon a
girls' school walking two and two--a 'crocodile' they call it, I
think. I bet you those girls are still talking about it. It must
have taken the old woman a good hour to collect them together again.
"It was market-day in Chesham; and I guess there has not been a
busier market-day in Chesham before or since. We went through the
town at about thirty miles an hour. I've never seen Chesham so
lively--it's a sleepy hole as a rule. A mile outside the town I
sighted the High Wycombe coach. I didn't feel I minded much; I had
got to that pass when it didn't seem to matter to me what happened;
I only felt curious. A dozen yards off the coach the pony stopped
dead; that jerked me off the seat to the bottom of the cart. I
couldn't get up, because the seat was on top of me. I could see
nothing but the sky, and occasionally the head of the pony, when he
stood upon his hind legs. But I could hear what the driver of the
coach said, and I judged he was having trouble also.
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