Peter had a little cart and a pony to draw it. How he came by the pony
nobody knew, but as it was never identified no hard questions were
asked. Every year a few Dartmoor ponies are missed when the drift takes
place; and at the same time certain individuals take to owning shaggy
little steeds which have no past history. When a brand has been
skilfully removed, one Dartmoor pony is very much like a score of
others. To drive Peter into a corner over his title to the pony which
pulled his shameful little cart--it was hardly better than a
packing-case on wheels--would have been impossible. He had hinted that
it was a present from the Prince of Wales as a slight return for
services rendered; and as no one else in the Tavy district was in the
habit of communicating with the lord of the manor, his statement could
not easily be refuted.
With this pony and unlicensed cart Peter would convey people from time
to time to the station at Mary Tavy, making a charge of eighteen pence,
which was not exorbitant considering the dangers and difficulties of the
road. For conveying his sister from her home to his at Christmas he made
a charge of one shilling; when she expostulated, as she always did, and
quoted the proverb "Charity begins at home," Peter invariably replied
with another proverb, "Business is business."
Few will have forgotten the winter of 1881, when snow fell for over a
week, and every road was lost and every cleave choked. Snow was lurking
in sheltered nooks upon the tops of Ger Tor and the High Willhays range
as late as the following May. Snow upon Dartmoor does not always mean
snow elsewhere. It is possible sometimes to stand knee-deep upon the
high moor and look down upon a stretch of country without a flake upon
it, and so on to the sugared and frosted hills of Exmoor; but no part of
the country escaped the great fall of 1881. Every one on the moor can
tell of some incident in connection with that Christmas. At the two
Tavies they tell how Peter tried to drive Mary from his village to hers,
how he failed in the attempt, and how both of them remained good
business people to the end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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