Marco Pauls Voyages and Travels | Page 6

Jacob Abbott
was rather stupid
and sleepy. In fact, no one observed that any change was taking place
in his condition, until, at last, as he was coming out from the door of a
tavern, where he had been in to get another drink, the driver said,
"Come, Jack, you must get up with me now, there is another passenger
to get in here."
Marco, who was still in his seat, holding the reins of the horses, looked
down, expecting that the sailor would make objections to this
proposal,--but he found, on the contrary, that Jack, as they called him,
acquiesced without making any difficulty, and allowed the driver to
help him up. The new passenger got inside. Forester felt somewhat
uneasy at having Marco ride any longer on the top, especially now that
the sailor was going up too. But the coach was full. He himself was
wedged into his seat, so that he could not get out easily. He knew, too,
that two or three of the passengers were going to get out at the next
stage, and so he concluded to let Marco remain outside until that time,
and then to take him in again.
Marco's admiration for the sailor was very much diminished when he
saw how helpless he had rendered himself by his excesses, and how
unceremoniously the driver pulled and hauled him about, in getting him
into his seat.
"There! hold on there," said the driver to him, in a stern voice,--"hold
on well, or you'll be down head foremost under the horses' heels, at the
first pitch we come to."
The poor sailor said nothing, but grasped an iron bar which passed
from the top of the coach down by the side of the seat, and held on as
well as he could.
They rode on in this manner for some miles, the head of the sailor

swinging back and forth, helplessly, as if he was nearly asleep.
Whenever Marco or the driver spoke to him, he either answered in a
thick and sleepy tone of voice, or he did not reply at all. Marco watched
him for a time, being continually afraid that he would fall off. He could
do nothing, however, to help him, for he himself was sitting at one end
of the seat while the sailor was upon the other, the driver being between
them. In the mean time the sun gradually went down and the twilight
came on, and as the shadows extended themselves slowly over the
landscape, Marco began to find riding outside less pleasant than it had
been before, and he thought that, on the whole, he should be very glad
when the time arrived for him to get into the coach again, with his
cousin.
At length they came to a bridge, covered with planks, which led across
a small stream. It was in rather a solitary place, with woods on each
side of the road. Beyond the bridge there was a level piece of road for a
short distance, and then a gentle ascent, with a farmhouse near the top
of it, on the right hand side of the road. At the end of the bridge,
between the planks and the ground beyond them, there was a jolt,
caused by the rotting away of a log which had been imbedded in the
ground at the beginning of the planking. As it was rather dark, on
account of the shade of the trees, the driver did not observe this jolt,
and he was just beginning to put his horses to the trot, as they were
leaving the bridge, when the forward wheels struck down heavily into
the hollow, giving the front of the coach a sudden pitch forward and
downward. Marco grasped the iron bar at his end of the seat, and saved
himself; and the driver, who was habitually on his guard, had his feet
so braced against the fender before him, that he would not have fallen.
But the poor sailor, entirely unprepared for the shock, and perhaps
unable to resist it if he had been prepared, pitched forward, lost his hold,
went over the fender, and was tumbling down, as the driver had
predicted, head foremost, under the horses' heels. The driver seized
hold of him with one hand, but finding this insufficient dropped his
reins and tried to grasp him with both. In doing it, however, he lost his
own balance and went over too. He, of course, let go of the sailor, when
he found that he was going himself. The sailor fell heavily and
helplessly between the pole and the side of one of the horses, to the

ground. The driver followed. He seized the pole with one hand, but was
too late to save himself entirely, and thinking there was danger of
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