And even with the weight upon his mind which arose out of the immensity and uncertainty of London, Tom could not resist the captivating sense of rapid motion through the pleasant air. The four grays skimmed along, as if they liked it quite as well as Tom did; the bugle was in as high spirit as the grays; the coachman chimed in sometimes with his voice; the wheels hummed cheerfully in unison: the brass-work on the harness was an orchestra of little bells; and thus, as they went clinking, jingling, rattling smoothly on, the whole concern, from the buckles of the leaders' coupling-reins to the handle of the hind boot, was one great instrument of music. 5. Yoho, past hedges, gates, and trees; past cottages and barns, and people going home from work. Yoho, past donkey-chaises, drawn aside into the ditch, and empty carts with rampant horses, whipped up at a bound upon the little water-course, and held by struggling carters close to the fivebarred gate, until the coach had passed the narrow turning in the road. 6. Yoho, by churches dropped down by themselves in quiet nooks, with rustic burial-grounds about them, where the graves are green, and daisies sleep (for it is evening) on the bosoms of the dead. Yoho, past streams, in which the cattle cool their feet, and where the rushes grow; past paddock-fences, farms, and rick-yards; past last year's stacks, cut slice by slice away, and showing in the waning light like ruined gables, old and brown. Yoho, down the pebbly dip, and through the merry water-splash, and up at a canter to the level road again. Yoho! yoho! 7. Yoho, among the gathering shades; making of no account the deep reflections of the trees, but scampering on through light and darkness all the same, as if the light of London fifty miles away were quite enough to travel by, and some to spare. Yoho, beside the village-green, where cricket-players linger yet, and every little indentation made in the fresh grass by bat or wicket, ball or player's foot, sheds out its perfume on the night. 8. Away with four fresh horses from the Baldfaced Stag, where topers congregate about the door admiring; and the last team, with traces hanging loose, go roaming off towards the pond, until observed and shouted after by a dozen throats, while volunteering boys pursue them. Now, with a clattering of hoofs and striking out of fiery sparks, across the old stone bridge, and down again into the shadowy road, and through the open gate, and far away, away, into the wold. Yoho! 9. See the bright moon!-high up before we know it, making the earth reflect the objects on its breast like water. Hedges, trees, low cottages, church steeples, blighted stumps and flourishing young slips, have all grown vain upon the sudden, and mean to contemplate their own fair images till morning. The poplars yonder rustle, that their quivering leaves may see themselves upon the ground. Not so the oak: trembling does not become him; and he watches himself in his stout old burly steadfastness, without the motion of a twig. 10. The moss-grown gate, ill poised upon its creaking hinges, crippled and decayed, swings to and fro before its glass, like some fantastic dowager; while our own ghostly likeness travels on, yoho! yoho! through ditch and brake, upon the ploughed land and the smooth, along the steep hill-side and steeper wall, as if it were a phantom hunter. 11. Clouds, too! and a mist upon the hollow. Not a dull fog that hides it, but a light, airy, gauzelike mist, which in our eyes of modest admiration gives a new charm to the beauties it is spread before, as real gauze has done ere now, and would again, so please you, though we were the Pope. Yoho! Why, now we travel like the moon herself. Hiding this minute in a grove of trees, next minute in a patch of vapour; emerging now upon our broad clear course; withdrawing now, but always dashing on, our journey is a counterpart of hers. Yoho! A match against the moon! 12. The beauty of the night is hardly felt, when day comes leaping up. Yoho! Two stages, and the country roads are almost changed to a continuous street. Yoho! past market-gardens, rows of houses, villas, crescents, terraces, and squares; past waggons, coaches, carts; past early workmen, late stragglers, drunken men, and sober carriers of loads; past brick and mortar in its every shape; and in among the rattling pavements, where a jaunty seat upon a coach is not so easy to preserve! Yoho! down countless turnings and through countless mazy ways, until an old inn-yard is gained, and Tom Pinch, getting down, quite stunned and giddy, is in London! From "Martin Chuzzlewit," by CHARLES DICKENS. de-fi-ance mor-tar Salis-bur-y or-ches-tra ter-rac-es phan-tom un-cer-tain-ty pop-lars u-ni-son in-den-ta-tion pro-fes-sion-al-ly vol-un-teer-ing Notes and Meanings. Hind boot, box for parcels at the back of the coach. 5 Rampant, prancing. 6 Paddock, park; pasture - ground 7 In-den-ta-tion, notch; mark. Con-gre-gate, assemble. Vol-un-teer-ing, going of their own accord; offering their services. Wold, plain or open country. 9 Con-tem-plate, study; think over. 10 Ill-poised, badly hung. Fan-tas-tic dow-a-ger, oddly dressed old lady of fashion. Phantom hunter, hunter of ghosts. 11 Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. Or-ches-tra, band of musical instru 12 ments. Coupling-reins, reins joining the foremost horses. E-merg-ing, coming out. A counterpart of, of the same kind as. Villas, houses standing alone. Jaunty, elevated; unsteady. Summary:-An hundred years ago there were no railways, and any one who wished to take a journey generally travelled by the stage-coach; so-called because it ran from stage to stage, or from station to station. It was by such a conveyance that Tom Pinch, a character in "Martin Chuzzlewit," travelled from Salisbury to London, a distance of about eighty miles. The journey is described in this lesson. Exercises-1. Describe a journey by road or by rail. 2. What do you know about the invention and introduction of railway travelling? 3. The Saxon prefix under signifies beneath, below-as, underground, beneath the ground; underservant, a servant beneath another servant; undermine, to dig below; under sell, to sell below, or at a less price. Make sentences containing underground, underservant, undermine, undersell. OLD KING TIME. 1. I wear not the purple of earth-born kings, But monarch and courtier, though great they be, And the dial to herald me-Old King Time! And break the battlement, stone from stone." 2. Softly I creep, like a thief in the night, |