It Is Long Since I
Slid Down Hill On A Sled Of My Own, And I Do Not Pretend To
Recall the
sensation; but I can remember nothing so luxurious in transportation as
the swift flight of the Madeira toboggan,
Which you temper at will
through its guides and guards, but do not wish to temper at all when
your first alarm, mainly theoretical, passes into the gayety ending in
exultant rejoicing at the bottom of the course.
Our two toboggan men were possibly vigilant and reassuring beyond the
common, but one was quite silently so; the other, who spoke a little
English, encouraged us from time to time to believe that they were
"strong mans," afterward correcting himself in conformity to the rules
of Portuguese grammar, which make the adjective agree in number with the
noun, and declaring that they were "strongs mans." We met many toboggan
men who needed to be "strongs mans" in their ascent of our track, with
their heavy toboggans on their heads; but some of them did not look
strong, and our own arrived spent and panting at the bottom. Something
like that is what always spoils pleasure in this world. Even when you
have paid for it with your money, some one else has paid with his person
twice as much, and you have not equalled his outlay when you have tipped
him your handsomest.
A shilling apiece seemed handsome for those "strongs mans," but
afterward there were watches of the nights when the spirit grieved that
the shilling had not been made two apiece or even half a crown, and I
wish now that the first reader of mine who toboggans down Madeira would
make up the difference for me in his tip to those poor fellows.
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