ot to," the boy answered, as he stepped to the platform.

"Dick is a fine, manly young chap," observed Mr. Tolman, after the train
was once more under way and he and Stephen were alone. "I have a
feeling that he is going to make good, too. All he needed was a chance.
He has splendid stuff in him. There isn't a mean bone in his body."

Stephen moved uncomfortably in his chair and a guilty blush rose to his
cheek but apparently his father did not notice it.

"You liked Mr. Ackerman also, didn't you, son? Indeed there is no need
to ask for he is a genius with young people and no boy could help liking
a man of his type. It is a pity he hasn't a dozen children, or isn't the
leader of a boy's school."

"He is corking at story-telling!" was Steve's comment.

"He certainly is. I caught some fragments of his Hudson River tale and
did not wonder that it fascinated you. What a remarkable era that was!"
he mused.

"There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask him," Stephen said.

"Such as?"

"Well, for one thing I was curious to know what happened after the
steamers on the Hudson were proved a success."

"I can answer that question," replied his father promptly. "After the
river boats had demonstrated their practicability steamships were built
for traffic along short distances of the coast. Owing to the War of 1812
and the danger to our shipping from the British, however, the launching
of these new lines did not take place immediately; but in time the
routes were established. The first of these was from New York to New
Haven. You see, travel by steam power was still so much of a novelty
that Norwich, first proposed as a destination, was felt to be too far
away. It was like taking one's life in one's hands to venture such an
immense distance from land on a steamboat."

Stephen smiled with amusement.

"But gradually," continued Mr. Tolman, "the public as well as the
steamboat companies became more daring and a line from New York to
Providence, with Vanderbilt's _Lexington_ as one of the ships, was put
into operation. Then in 1818 a line of steamers to sail the Great Lakes
was built; and afterwards steamships to travel to points along the Maine
coast. The problem of navigation on the rivers of the interior of the
country followed and here a new conundrum in steamboat construction
confronted the builders, for the channels of many of the streams were
shallow and in consequence demanded a type of boat very long and wide in