that was back in 'fifty-six,' and it broke his leg an' two ribs—the van started from close 'pon the knap o' the hill here, and scat itself to bits against the bridge at the foot just two and a half minutes after."
I suggested that this was not very fast for a runaway horse.
"I dessay not," he answered; "but 'twas pretty spry for a van slippinbackwards, and the old mare diggin' her toes in all the way to hold it up."
One or two of the passengers grinned at my expense, and the old man pursued—
"But if you want to know how fast a hoss can get down St. Fimbar's hill, I reckon you've lost your chance by not axin' Dan'l Best, that died up to the 'Sylum twelve years since; though, poor soul, he'd but one answer for every question from his seven-an'-twentieth year to his end, an' that was 'One, two, three, four, five, sis, seven."
"Ah, the poor body! his was a wisht case," a woman observed from the corner furthest from the door.
"Ay, Selina, and fast forgotten, like all the doin's and sufferin's of the men of old time."
