When they had discussed all manner of subjects, Titus drew from his pocket a newspaper and read, to the astonishment and evident alarm of his guests, that a man in England had invented a machine to do away with horses.

The doctor set down his ale and adjusted his spectacles, and gazed at the speaker with an air of surprise and astonishment, while Hanz and the school-master suddenly ceased smoking.
"Now don't get alarmed, my friends," said Titus, watching with evident delight the increasing alarm of his guests.

"It is all here, and true.
He has invented a steam-horse, with an iron stomach and wheels; and the animal can, with good management, be made to run over a road at the rate of twenty miles an hour.

Yes," added Titus, with a look of great seriousness, "people are already risking their lives by riding in this way." The doctor heaved a sigh, and, half raising his pipe, gave it as his opinion that a man who would invent such dangerous machines must be in league with the devil.

This profound opinion was endorsed by both Hanz and the school-master.