Some grooms will go home to their beer and leave us for hours with our
dry hay and oats and nothing to moisten them; then of course we gulp
down too much at once, which helps to spoil our breathing and sometimes
chills our stomachs. But the best thing that we had here was our Sundays
for rest! we worked so hard in the week, that I do not think we could
have kept up to it, but for that day; besides, we had then time to enjoy
each other's company.




CHAPTER XIII


DOLLY AND A REAL GENTLEMAN

The winter came in early, with a great deal of cold and wet. There was
snow, or sleet, or rain, almost every day for weeks, changing only for
keen driving winds or sharp frosts. The horses all felt it very much.
When it is a dry cold, a couple of good thick rugs will keep the warmth
in us; but when it is soaking rain, they soon get wet through and are no
good. Some of the drivers had a waterproof cover to throw over, which
was a fine thing; but some of the men were so poor that they could not
protect either themselves or their horses, and many of them suffered
very much that winter. When we horses had worked half the day we went to
our dry stables, and could rest; while they had to sit on their boxes,
sometimes staying out as late as one or two o'clock in the morning, if
they had a party to wait for.

[Illustration]