During the first mile or so of our ride his neutrality seemed well sustained, but it began rapidly to disappear as we came in sight of the village which had been bereft of its post-office as well as its post master, his answers to my questions betraying a decided bias toward the "let well enough alone" policy as applicable in this case. I did not propose to stop there at this time, but to pass through to the upper village,--but my suspicions that I had after all committed myself to the temporary keeping of one of the friends of the new sites, were fully confirmed when I found him taking a narrow by-way through the old settlement, poorly calculated to show off the place to much advantage. "Look here," said I, "don't go through this hollow, but take a turn round by those spires, and let me see what they have got to brag about." Coming to a halt, and backing round in a somewhat spiteful manner, during which manoeuvre we came near upsetting, he soon came upon the route indicated. Whether from a conviction that there was no use in trying to cheat me any longer, or from the study requisite for the invention of some new system of tactics likely to be more successful, he said but little more during the rest of our ride. I subsequently ascertained that he and the scheme of getting two post-offices for one, rejoiced in one and the same paternity, or in other words, that his mother was the wife of the enterprising and wealthy gentleman before mentioned, and like a good and dutiful son, he "went in" for whatever favored the "old man's" interest. Passing through one of the main streets of the middle or post-officeless village, I observed standing in front of a respectable, ancient-appearing mansion, a solemn-looking hearse, and a large number of other vehicles, indicating that funeral services were being performed within, and through the open windows and doors I could see the friends and mourners. "A funeral, I perceive," said I to my companion. A sullenly emphasized "yes," was all the notice vouchsafed to my remark. "A fine-looking lot of horses collected here," I continued. "Yes, pretty fair," he rejoined, without, however, withdrawing his attention from a large fly which was annoying our animal, and at the same time proving himself anything but an expert marksman by his repeated unsuccessful attempts to annihilate the insect with the lash of his whip. "This accounts for my seeing so few persons in the streets," I remarked. "They must be attending the funeral." "I suppose so," he answered, at the same instant striking the unlucky fly dead, which neither he nor bob-tail had before succeeded in choking off. A quarter of an hour more found us at village number three, pleasantly situated upon elevated ground, and consisting of an old-fashioned country church, the fine establishment of the wealthy pioneer in this post-office enterprise, already referred to, a store, and a few other buildings.