"Guess they could, but two's easier; and, besides, they've nothing else to do. We'll heap it up too. You just wait and see."
There was not long to wait, for the excitement rose fast in the sitting-room, and Susie and Pen were in that sleigh a little in advance of everybody else. Its driver stood by the heads of his first yoke of oxen, and Susie at once exclaimed,—
"Good—morning, Vosh. What a tremendous whip!"
"Why, Susie," said Pen, "that isn't a whip, it's an ox-gad."
"That's it, Pen," said Vosh; but he seemed disposed to talk to his oxen rather than to anybody else. The yoke next the sleigh stood on either side of a long, heavy "tongue;" but the foremost pair were fastened to the end of that by a chain which passed between them to a hook in their yoke. These latter two animals, as Vosh explained to Susie, "were only about half educated, and they took more than their share of driving."
He began to do it for them now, and it was half a wonder to see how accurately the huge beasts kept the right track down through the gate and out into the road. It seemed easier then, for all they had to do was to go straight ahead.
"Let me take the whip, do, please," said Susie; and Vosh only remarked, as he handed it to her,—
"Guess you'll find it heavy."
She lifted it with both hands; and he smiled all over his broad, ruddy face, as she made a desperate effort to swing the lash over the oxen.
"Go 'long now! Git ap! Cluck-cluck."