he subject in a general way, and there is no fear of your tiring
me out."

"All right," proceeded David. "As I was sayin', I got another equine
wonder an' fifteen dollars to boot fer my old plug, an' it wa'n't a
great while before I was in the hoss bus'nis to stay. After between two
an' three years I had fifty or sixty hosses an' mules, an' took all
sorts of towin' jobs. Then a big towin' concern quit bus'nis, an' I
bought their hull stock an' got my money back three four times over, an'
by the time I was about twenty-one I had got ahead enough to quit the
canal an' all its works fer good, an' go into other things. But there
was where I got my livin' after I run away f'm Buxton Hill. Before I got
the job of lock-tendin' I had made the trip to Albany an' back
twice--'walkin' my passage,' as they used to call it, an' I made one
trip helpin' steer, so 't my canal experience was putty thorough, take
it all 'round."

"It must have been a pretty hard life," remarked John.

David took out his penknife and proceeded to impale his cigar upon the
blade thereof. "No," he said, to John's proffer of the box, "this 'll
last quite a spell yet. Wa'al," he resumed after a moment, in reply to
John's remark, "viewin' it all by itself, it _was_ a hard life. A thing
is hard though, I reckon, because it's harder 'n somethin' else, or you
think so. Most things go by comparin'. I s'pose if the gen'ral run of
trotters never got better 'n three 'n a half that a hoss that c'd do it
in three 'd be fast, but we don't call 'em so nowdays. I s'pose if at
that same age you'd had to tackle the life you'd 'a' found it hard, an'
the' was hard things about it--trampin' all night in the rain, fer
instance; sleepin' in barns at times, an' all that; an' once the cap'n
o' the boat got mad at somethin' an' pitched me head over heels into the
canal. It was about the close of navigation an' the' was a scum of ice.
I scrambled out somehow, but he wouldn't 'a' cared if I'd ben drownded.
He was an exception, though. The canalers was a rough set in gen'ral,
but they averaged fer disposition 'bout like the ord'nary run o' folks;
the' was mean ones an' clever ones; them that would put upon ye, an'
them that would treat ye decent. The work was hard an' the grub wasn't
alwus much better 'n what you--he, he, he!--what you ben gettin' at the
Eagle" (John was now by the way of rather relishing jokes on that
subject); "but I hadn't ben raised in the lap o' luxury--not to