From Canal Boy to President | Page 7

how delightful it would be to have such a floating home.
"Is the captain on board?" the boy ventured to ask.
"He's down below," growled the sailor whom he addressed.
"Will he soon come up?"
He was answered in the affirmative.
So James lingered until the man he inquired for came up.
He was a brutal-looking man, as common in appearance as any of the sailors whom he commanded, and the boy was amazed at his bearing. Surely that man was not his ideal of a ship-captain. He thought of him as a sort of prince, but there was nothing princely about the miserable, bloated wretch before him.
Still he preferred his application.
"Do you want a new hand?" asked James.
His answer was a volley of oaths and curses that made James turn pale, for he had never uttered an oath in his life, and had never listened to anything so disgusting as the tirade to which he was forced to listen.
[Illustration: THE CANAL BOY]
He sensibly concluded that nothing was to be gained by continuing the conversation with such a man. He left the schooner's deck with a feeling of discomfiture. He had never suspected that sailors talked or acted like the men he saw.
Still he clung to the idea that all sailors were not like this captain. Perhaps again the rebuff he received was in consequence of his rustic appearance. The captain might be prejudiced against him, just as the shop-keepers had been, though the latter certainly had not expressed themselves in such rude and profane language. He might not be fit for a sailor yet, but he could prepare himself.
He bethought himself of a cousin of his, by name Amos Letcher, who had not indeed arrived at the exalted position of captain of a schooner, but was content with the humbler position of captain of a canal-boat on the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal.
This seemed to James a lucky thought.
"I will go to Amos Letcher," he said to himself. "Perhaps he can find me a situation on a canal-boat, and that will be the next thing to being on board a ship."
This thought put fresh courage into the boy, and he straightway inquired for the Evening Star, which was the name of the boat commanded by his cousin.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE TOW-PATH.
Captain Letcher regarded his young cousin in surprise.
"Well, Jimmy, what brings you to Cleveland?" he asked.
"I came here to ship on the lake," the boy answered. "I tried first to get a place in a store, as I promised mother, but I found no opening. I would rather be a sailor."
"I am afraid your choice is not a good one; a good place on land is much better than going to sea. Have you tried to get a berth?"
"Yes, I applied to the captain of a schooner, but he swore at me and called me a land-lubber."
"So you are," returned his cousin smiling "Well, what are your plans now?"
"Can't you give me a place?"
"What, on the canal?"
"Yes cousin."
"I suppose you think that would be the next thing to going to sea?"
"It might prepare me for it."
"Well," said Captain Letcher, good-naturedly, "I will see what I can do for you. Can you drive a pair of horses?"
"Oh, yes."
"Then I will engage you. The pay is not very large, but you will live on the boat."
"How much do you pay?" asked James, who was naturally interested in the answer to this question.
"We pay from eight to ten dollars a month, according to length of service and fidelity. Of course, as a new hand, you can not expect ten dollars."
"I shall be satisfied with eight, cousin."
"Now, as to your duties. You will work six hours on and six hours off. That's what we call a trick--the six hours on, I mean. So you will have every other six hours to rest, or do anything you like; that is, after you have attended to the horses."
"Horses!" repeated James, puzzled; for the animals attached to the boat at that moment were mules.
"Some of our horses are mules," said Captain Letcher, smiling. "However, it makes no difference. You will have to feed and rub them down, and then you can lie down in your bunk, or do anything else you like."
"That won't be very hard work," said James, cheerfully.
"Oh, I forgot to say that you can ride or walk, as you choose. You can rest yourself by changing from one to the other."
James thought he should like to ride on horseback, as most boys do. It was not, however, so good fun as he anticipated. A canal-boat horse is by no means a fiery or spirited creature. His usual gait is from two to two and a half miles an hour, and to a boy of quick, active temperament the slowness must be rather exasperating. Yet, in the course of a day a