TALE OF THE WILY THREE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 45, 4 February 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

TALE OF THE WILY THREE.

Mark. Twain was a firm believer in the national movement for good roads, nnd had many a tale to tell about the incredibly bad roads of some sections. “I once had thirty miles," so Mark Twain began, “to go by stage in Mississippi. The roads were terrible, for it was early spring. The passengers consisted of five men and three women —three large, well-developed women, swathed in rhawls and veils, who kept to tbemselvea, talking in low tones on the rear seat.

“Well, we hadn’t gone a mile before the stage got stuck two feet in the l-Jack mud. D >wn jumred every man of it\ and lor ten minutes we tugged nd jerked and pulled till we got the s'age out of the hole.

“We had hatdly got our breath back •-•’hen the stage got stuck again, and gain we had to strain our ottt to release her.

.“Ju covering fifteen miles we stuck eight times; and in going the whole thirty we lift-eel that old stage out of the mud seventeen times by actual count.

/he five male passengers were wet, tired, and filthy when we reached our destination: and so you can imagine onr feelings when we saw the three women pas«engerr. remove, ns they dis. mounted, their vci’s, their shawls, and then skirts, and Io and behold—they were three big hearts', robust men.

“As we stared at them with bulging and ferocious eyes, one rf them said:— “Thanks for your labour, gents. Wo knowod this road and prepared for it Wil: you liquor?”