It is a jolly, roistering crowd that goes to the Derby, as Frank was not long in discovering. All along the line parties were singing popular songs; some were playing cards on small tables placed in their vans; some were beating time on their knees, and some were dancing up and down the limited confines of their wagons.
By making an effort for it, Frank had succeeded in obtaining a splendid seat upon one of the coaches. The professor was at his side, trying to look glum and disconsolate, as if he did not approve of such things at all.
“Hi, there, sir!” bawled a ragged urchin, who had been racing along beside the coach, occasionally turning handsprings and cartwheels; “your whiskers are sunstroked, sir.”
“The insolent young rascal!” growled the professor, whose fiery-red beard was a continual source of mingled pride and chagrin to him.
“’Ope you’ll pick a winner, sir,” cried another bare-legged ragamuffin. “You might throw us your moldy coppers, sir.”
“Nice boy,” smiled the professor, as he fished around in his pocket and brought forth a nickel, which he tossed to the second boy.
In the procession the costermongers were the most prominent. They could be readily distinguished by their dress. They all wore a white and blue dotted handkerchief, and long-tailed coats covered with huge pearl buttons. Some of them wore trousers slashed at the bottom on the outer seam, Mexican style.
The costers all seemed in a decidedly jovial mood. Some of them were accompanied by wives or sweethearts. Their sweethearts banged their hair after a fashion that distinguished them, and nearly all wore a broad silver chain and a most amazing bonnet slanting down in front over the hair and eyes, and shooting up at the back to tower high in the air. These bonnets were covered with ribbons, velvet and dyed feathers.
The costers seemed to feel that they owned the road, although they remained quite jovial if not crowded, and they often stood up in their carts to call to people on the coaches, addressing everybody in a most familiar manner.
After nearly two hours of steady driving, the coach on which Frank and the professor rode began to draw away from the suburbs of handsome villas. Parks were seen, and villages were passed through.