turkey was better the next day, and lived, as we were afterwards
told, to a ripe old Thanksgiving age.
The new steering-head came early the next morning; in thirty
minutes it was in place. Our host and valley hostess were then
given their first automobile ride; she, womanlike, took the speed,
sudden turns, and strange sensations more coolly than he. As a
rule, women and children are more fearless than men in an
automobile; this is not because they have more courage, but men
realize more vividly the things that might happen, whereas women
and children simply feel the exhilaration of the speed without
thinking of possible disasters.
We went down the road at a thirty-mile clip, made a quick turn at
the four corners, and were back almost before the dust we raised
had settled.
"That's something like," said our host; "but the old horse is a
good enough automobile for me."
The hold-all was soon strapped in place, and at half-past nine we
were off for Pittsfield.
Passing the Tilden homestead, we soon began the ascent of the
mountain, following the superb new State road.
The old road was through the Shaker village and contained grades
which rendered it impossible for teams to draw any but the
lightest loads. It was only when market conditions were very
abnormal that the farmers in the valley would draw their hay,
grain, and produce to Pittsfield.
The new State road winds around and over the mountain at a grade
nowhere exceeding five per cent. and averaging a little over four.
It is a broad macadam, perfectly constructed.
In going up this easy and perfectly smooth ascent for some six or
seven miles, the disadvantage of having no intermediate-speed
gears was forcibly illustrated, for the grade was just too stiff
for the high-speed gear, and yet so easy that the engine tended to
race on the low, but we had to make the entire ascent on the
hill-climbing gear at a rate of about four or five miles an hour;
an intermediate-gear would have carried us up at twelve or fifteen
miles per hour.
CHAPTER TWELVE AN INCIDENT OF TRAVEL
"THE COURT CONSIDERS THE MATTER"
In Pittsfield the machine frightened a lawyer,--not a woman, or a
child, or a horse, or a donkey,--but just a lawyer; to be sure,
there was nothing to indicate he was a lawyer, and still less that
he was unusually timid of his kind, therefore no blame could
attach for failing to distinguish him from men less nervous.
Here's a piece of wisdom on driving or cute car quote to study:
The greater part of my official time is spent on investigating collisions between propelled vehicles, each on its own side of the road, each sounding its horn, and each stationary. ~An English Lord Chief Justice, quoted in 2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs by Edward F. Murphy
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