“Down in Mississippi, a ferryman had to pay for two stage-horses that jumped overboard, and the court said that as soon as the property is put on the boat, the boatman has it primâ facie in his charge, and is responsible for it, unless the owner consents to take exclusive charge.”[206]
“I guess I wish we poor chaps could make a prime and fashious charge. I have to work this old machine mornin’, noon, and night, barring when it is too windy, or I have gone to roost, as I live away over there.”[207]
Safely we passed o’er the flood, and safely disembarked and reseated ourselves in the venerable trap, which with creaks and groans—as though rheumatic pains shot through every bolt and bar—ascended the bank.
Just then we passed a heavy wagon. It was on the wrong side of the road, and we narrowly escaped collision. I sung out to the farmer driving it:—
“If you want to drive on the wrong side, old fellow, you should take more care and keep a better lookout,[208] for if an accident had happened, as we had not ample room to avoid your wheels, you would have been liable for the injury, being on the wrong side of the road.”[209]
“Fine day, sir,” was the only response that came, and our driver, with a grin, told me that the old man was as deaf as a door-nail.
My companion turned and said to me, “I have often wondered why the rules of the road should be so different in England from what they are in America. In the old country the three laws are: First, on meeting, each party shall bear to the left; second, in passing, the passer shall do so on the right hand; and, third, in crossing, the driver shall bear to the left and pass behind the other carriage.[210] In America, the first rule is the reverse, that is, each party must keep to the right;[211] but in passing, the foremost person bears to the left, and the other passes on the off side, and in crossing, the driver bears to the left hand and passes behind the other carriage—at least so says Story.”[212]
“’Tis singular that there should be the difference,” I remarked.
“But that is not the only point of diversity. In England these rules apply as well to equestrians as to carriages; while in the United States a traveller on horseback when meeting another equestrian, or a carriage, may exercise his own notions of prudence, and turn to the right or to the left.[213] Of course common consent and immemorial usage require that a horseman should yield the road to a wagon or other vehicle.[214] If, however, he is mulish and will not turn out when he might safely do so, and his steed is injured by a collision, he is remediless.[215] Again, when one is ahead in America he need not, unless he has some milk of human nature in his veins, turn out at all to let a man behind pass, if there is room enough on either side.”
“But if there is no room, what then?” I queried.