butcher's horse and a two-penny
post-office pony, he would have known at once, that this traveller could have
been no other than Tom Smart, of the great house of Bilson and Slum, Cateaton
Street, City. However, as there was no bagman to look on, nobody knew anything
at all about the matter; and so Tom Smart and his clay-coloured gig with the red
wheels, and the vixenish mare with the fast pace, went on together, keeping the
secret among them: and nobody was a bit the wiser.
    There are many pleasanter places even in this dreary world, than Marlborough
Downs when it blows hard; and if you throw in beside, a gloomy winter's evening,
a miry and sloppy road, and a pelting fall of heavy rain, and try the effect, by
way of experiment, in your own proper person, you will experience the full force
of this observation.
    The wind blew - not up the road or down it, though that's bad enough, but
sheer across it, sending the rain slanting down like the lines they used to rule
in the copy-books at school, to make the boys slope well. For a moment it would
die away, and the traveller would begin to delude himself into the belief that,
exhausted with its previous fury, it had quietly lain itself down to rest, when,
whoo! he would hear it growling and whistling in the distance, and on it would
come rushing over the hill-tops, and sweeping along the plain, gathering sound
and strength as it drew nearer, until it dashed with a heavy gust against horse
and man, driving the sharp rain into their ears, and its cold damp breath into
their very bones; and past them it would scour, far, far away, with a stunning
roar, as if in ridicule of their weakness, and triumphant in the consciousness
of its own strength and power.
    The bay mare splashed away, through the mud and water, with drooping ears;
now and then tossing her head as if to express her disgust at this very
ungentlemanly behaviour of the elements, but keeping a good pace
notwithstanding, until a gust of wind, more furious than any that had yet
assailed them, caused her to stop suddenly and plant her four feet firmly
against the ground, to prevent her being blown over. It's a special mercy that
she did this, for if she had been blown over, the vixenish mare was so light,
and the gig was so light, and Tom Smart such a light weight