After a short walk they approached the
general store of the little village, which was the lounging-place of
all the farmers for miles around. When they arrived they found a motley
gathering assembled to witness the great event of the day in this town,
the departure of the stage-coach, and Robert was speedily introduced as
a relative of Mr. Bascom, who had came to McDonald to spend a few days.
The mail coach was an important institution in McDonald, and was
regarded as the great medium of communication between that place and the
great world outside. Every morning at precisely the same hour the coach
departed, and every evening with the same regard for punctuality the old
time-worn vehicle rolled up before the platform in front of the store,
to the intense delight and admiration of the assembled crowd.
For nearly forty years had this identical old coach performed this
journey, and the same old driver had drawn the reins and cracked his
whip over the flanks--I was about to say, of the same old horses. This,
however, could not have been so, although the sleepy-looking, antiquated
animals that were now attached to the lumbering old yellow coach,
looked as if they might have done duty for fully that length of time.
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