very expensive. The only redeeming thing about them is that we
pass our experience on to others and save them from tumbling into the
same pit. Thus it was with the early railroad builders. When the Boston
and Providence Road was constructed this mistake was not repeated and a
flexible wooden roadbed was laid. In the meantime a short steam
railroad line had been built from Boston to Newton, a distance of seven
miles, and gradually the road to this suburb was lengthened until it
extended first to Natick and afterward to Worcester, a span of
forty-four miles. Over this road, during fine weather, three trains ran
daily; in winter there were but two. I presume nothing simpler or less
pretentious could have been found than this early railroad whose trains
were started at the ringing of a bell hung on a near-by tree. Although
it took three hours to make a trip now made in one, the journey was
considered very speedy, and unquestionably it was if travelers had to
cover the distance by stagecoach. When we consider that in 1834 it took
freight the best part of a week to get to Boston by wagons a three-hour
trip becomes a miracle."

"I suppose there was not so much freight in those days anyway," Steve
speculated.

"Fortunately not. People had less money and less leisure to travel, and
therefore there were not so many trunks to be carried; I am not sure,
too, but the frugal Americans of that day had fewer clothes to take with
them when they did go. Then, as each town or district was of necessity
more or less isolated, people knew fewer persons outside of their own
communities, did a less extensive business, and had less incentive to go
a-visiting. Therefore, although the Boston and Worcester Railroad could
boast only two baggage cars (or burthen cars, as they were called), the
supply was sufficient, which was fortunate, especially since the
freight house in Boston was only large enough to shelter these two."

"And out of all this grew the Boston and Albany Railroad?" questioned
the boy.

"Yes, although it was not until 1841, about eight years later, that the
line was extended to New York State. By that time tracks had been laid
through the Berkshire hills, opening up the western part of
Massachusetts. The story of that first momentous fifteen-hour journey of
the Boston officials to the New York capital, where they were welcomed
and entertained by the Albany dignitaries, is picturesque reading
indeed. One of the party who set out