and another man gave him
a kick. He never forgot either, and would undoubtedly have paid both
parties back, if he had met them in later life.

There was a trip to Albany on a steamboat, the first our friends had
ever seen. It burned wood, and stopped every few miles for fuel. They
ate brown bread and oatmeal, and at New York bought some smoked bear's
meat and venison. At Albany an Indian sold them sassafras for tea, also
some dried blackberries--it was a regular feast.

At Albany there was a wonderful invention, a railroad. The coaches ran
up the hill without horses or an engine, and the father explained that
it wasn't a miracle either. A long rope ran around a big wheel at the
top of the hill, and there was a car that ran down the hill as another
one ran up.

The railroad extended to Schenectady--sixteen miles away--and the trip
was made in less than half a day if the weather was good. There they
transferred to a canal-boat. They had no money to pay for a stateroom,
and so camped on deck--it was lots of fun. Jamie then and there decided
that some day he would be the captain of a fast packet on a raging
canal. His fond hope was never realized.

After the cooped-up quarters on the ocean the smoothness and freedom of
the Erie Canal were heavenly. They saw birds and squirrels, and once
caught a glimpse of a wolf. At Montezuma they changed canal-boats,
because the craft they were on went through to Buffalo, and they wished
to go to Geneva, where John, Andrew and Jane were getting rich.

Two miles out of Geneva the boat slowed up, a plank was run out and all
went ashore. John worked for a farmer a mile away. They found him. And
in the dusty road another prayer-meeting was held when everybody kneeled
and thanked God that the long journey was ended. Paterfamilias had
predicted they would never arrive, but he was wrong.

The next day they saw Andrew and Jane, and tears of joy were rained down
everybody's back. Now for the first time they had plenty to eat--meat
every meal, potatoes, onions and corn on the ear. There is no corn in
Scotland, and Jamie thought that corn on the ear was merely a new way of
cooking beans. He cleaned off the cob and then sent the stick back to
have it refilled.

America was a wonderful country, and Brother John had not really told
half the truth about it. Jamie got a job at fifty cents a week with
board. Fifty cents was a great deal more than half a dollar--I guess so!
He would have been paid