The worst of it was, the people were surly ; not one would get out of our way until the last minute, and many pretended not to see us coming, though the machine , held in by the brake, squeaked a pitiful warning.
Sometimes one man followed half-a-dozen cows, sometimes one cow was followed by half-a-dozen men.— In donkey-carts women rode alone, the men, whip in hand, walking by their side ; and in waggons drawn by oxen were young pigs, or else an old woman and a refractory calf sitting together on the straw.— On footpaths across the fields, or on distant roads, more peasants were walking away, cattle at their heels.— The nearer we came to the town, the greater was the crowd.  The worst of it was, the people were surly ; not one would get out of our way until the last minute, and many pretended not to see us coming, though the machine , held in by the brake, squeaked a pitiful warning.  Finally, in the street of La Palisse, we could hardly get on for the cows and oxen, and donkeys and people. "