don't like to be seen. Seems so he was kind o' shamed of
himself, an' I wouldn't wonder if he was. He's done a lot o' things to
be 'shamed of."

"What's he done?" Joe asked.

"Ketched sheep and pigs and fawns and run off with 'em."

"What does he do with 'em?"

"Eats 'em up. Now you quit. Here's a lot o' rocks and mud and I got to
tend to business. You tackle yer mother and chase her up and down the
hills a while and let me get my breath."

* * * * *

On the twenty-ninth day after their journey began they came in sight of
the beautiful green valley of the Mohawk. As they looked from the hills
they saw the roof of the forest dipping down to the river shores and
stretching far to the east and west and broken, here and there, by small
clearings. Soon they could see the smoke and spires of the thriving
village of Utica.

Here they bought provisions and a tin trumpet for Joe, and a doll with a
real porcelain face for Betsey, and turned into the great main
thoroughfare of the north leading eastward to Boston and westward to a
shore of the midland seas. This road was once the great trail of the
Iroquois, by them called the Long House, because it had reached from the
Hudson to Lake Erie, and in their day had been well roofed with foliage.
Here the travelers got their first view of a steam engine. The latter
stood puffing and smoking near the village of Utica, to the horror and
amazement of the team and the great excitement of those in the wagon.
The boy clung to his father for fear of it.

Samson longed to get out of the wagon and take a close look at the noisy
monster, but his horses were rearing in their haste to get away, and
even a short stop was impossible. Sambo, with his tail between his
legs, ran ahead, in a panic, and took refuge in some bushes by the
roadside.

"What was that, father?" the boy asked when the horses had ceased to
worry over this new peril.

"A steam engyne," he answered. "Sarah, did ye get a good look at it?"

"Yes; if that don't beat all the newfangled notions I ever heard of,"
she exclaimed.

"It's just begun doin' business," said Samson.

"What does it do?" Joe asked.

"On a railroad track it can grab hold of a house full o' folks and run
off with it. Goes like the wind, too."

"Does it eat 'em up?" Joe asked.

"No. It eats wood and oil and keeps yellin' for more. I guess it could
eat a cord o' wood and wash it down with half a bucket o' castor oi