were the questions that went through the watching crowds, and it was not
long before the answer traveled from mouth to mouth: "It's one of Rob
Fulton's inventions. He read about making them in some book."

The father of one of Robert's friends nodded his head when he heard this
news, and said to his wife: "I might have known it was young Rob; I've
never known such a boy for making things. His schoolmaster told me the
other day that when he was only ten he made his own lead pencils,
picking up any bits of sheet lead which happened to come his way, and
hammering the lead out of them and making pencils that were as good as
any in the school."

The fireworks were a great success; for the better part of an hour they
held the attention of Lancaster, and when the last rocket had shot out
its stars every boy there felt that the Fourth of July had been
splendidly kept. For a day or two Rob Fulton was an important personage,
then he dropped back into the ranks with his schoolmates.

It was not long after, however, that Robert set himself to work out
another problem. The Fultons lived near the Conestoga, and Robert and
his younger brothers were very fond of fishing. All they had to fish
from was a light raft which they had built the summer before, and this
cumbersome craft they had to pole from place to place. When they wanted
to fish some distance down from their farmhouse, they had to spend most
of the afternoon poling, and this heavy labor robbed the sport of half
its charm. So, a week or two after the Fourth of July, Robert told a
couple of boy friends that he was going to make a boat of his own, and
got them to help him collect the materials he needed.

He liked mystery, and told them to tell no one of his plans. As soon as
school was over the three conspirators would steal away to the
riverside, and there hammer and saw and plane to their hearts' content.
Gradually the boat took shape under their hands, and after about ten
days' work a small, light skiff, with two paddle-wheels joined by a bar
and crank, was ready to be launched.

The idea was that a boy standing in the middle of the skiff could make
both wheels revolve by turning the crank, and it needed only another boy
holding an oar in a crotch at the stern to steer the craft wherever he
wanted it to go. Yet, even when the boat was finished, the two other
boys were very doubtful whether such a strange-looking object would
really work, Robert himself had no doubts upo