"And, Aunt Deborah," put in Cousin Amelia, "here's a comforter I've made you myself, and a box of cayenne lozenges for your throat; and don't forget the stone jug of hot water for your poor feet; and mind you write directly you arrive--you or Kate," she added, turning to address me almost for the first time since the memorable mistake about Squire Haycock. Aunt Deborah was completely overpowered by so much kindness. "You'd better have the carriage all to yourself--you and your maid," persisted Lady Horsingham. "I'll drive Kate as far as the station in the pony-carriage.--Kate, you're not afraid to trust yourself with me in the pony-carriage?" "Not I, indeed, aunt," was my reply, "nor with anybody else, for that matter. I've pretty good nerves--there are few things that I am afraid of." "Indeed, Kate, I fear it is so," was my aunt's reply. "I own I should like to see you a little more of a coward." So it was settled that Aunt Deborah and Gertrude being safely packed up in the close carriage, I should accompany Lady Horsingham, who was rather proud of her charioteering skill, and drove stiff and upright, as if she had swallowed the poker--never looking to the right or left, or allowing her attention to wander for an instant from the ponies she had undertaken to control. Now, these said ponies had been doing nothing during the frost except consuming their three feeds a day with vigorous appetite and a considerable accession of high spirits. Consequently they were, what is termed in stable language, very much "above themselves"--a state of self-exaltation which they demonstrated by sundry unbecoming squeaks and gambols as soon as they found themselves fairly started on their journey. Tiny, the youngest and handsomest, would persist in shying, plunging, and swerving against the pole, much to the demoralization of his comrade, Mouse, a stiff-built little fellow with a thick neck, who was ordinarily extremely well-behaved, but apt on occasions like the present to lower his rebellious little head and defy all control. Lady Horsingham was tolerably courageous, but totally destitute of what is termed "hand," a quality as necessary in driving as in riding, particularly with fractious or high-spirited horses. The seat of a pony-carriage, besides, is not a position from which a Jehu has much command over the animals in front of him; and although, as I have repeatedly said, I am not nervous, I had earned sufficient experience in the ways of the equine race to know that we might easily be placed in a position of some peril should anything occur to excite the mischievous propensities of either of the specimens now gambolling before us. More accidents have happened out of pony-carriages than all other descriptions of vehicle put together.