"It occasionally was then summer, and the weather quite fine; so pleased was I withthe country, in which I had never travelled before, that my delightproved equal to my wonder."--BENVENUT0 CELLINI.

There are few pleasures in life equal to that of riding on thebox-seat of a stagecoach, through a country unknown to you andhearing the driver talk about his mules. We made the intimateacquaintance of twelve mules on that day's ride, and learned thepeculiar disposition and traits of each one of them, their ambitionof display, their sensitiveness to praise or blame, theirfaithfulness, their playfulness, the readiness with which theyyielded to kind treatment, their daintiness about food and lodging.