Steve and the Steam Engine

and the Steam Engine, by Sara
Ware Bassett

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Title: Steve and the Steam Engine
Author: Sara Ware Bassett
Illustrator: A. O. Scott
Release Date: August 5, 2007 [EBook #22245]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AND THE STEAM ENGINE ***

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By Sara Ware Bassett
The Invention Series
Paul and the Printing Press
Steve and the Steam Engine
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[Illustration: "It was the conquering of this multitude of defects that
gave to the world the intricate, exquisitely made
machine."--Frontispiece. See page 103.]
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The Invention Series
STEVE AND THE STEAM ENGINE
By Sara Ware Bassett
With Illustrations By A. O. Scott
Boston Little, Brown, And Company 1921
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Copyright, 1921, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved
Published September, 1921
The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass U S A
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CONTENTS
I An Unpremeditated Folly 1

II A Meeting with an Old Friend 19
III A Second Calamity 34
IV The Story of the First Railroad 51
V Steve Learns a Sad Lesson 67
VI Mr. Tolman's Second Yarn 77
VII A Holiday Journey 94
VIII New York and What Happened There 110
IX An Astounding Calamity 125
X An Evening of Adventure 145
XI The Crossing of the Country 156
XII New Problems 169
XIII Dick Makes His Second Appearance 178
XIV A Steamboat Trip by Rail 192
XV The Romance of the Clipper Ship 205
XVI Again the Magic Door Opens 216
XVII More Steamboating 224
XVIII A Thanksgiving Tragedy 238
XIX The End of the House Party 248
---------------------- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"It was the conquering of this multitude of defects that gave to the
world the intricate, exquisitely made machine" Frontispiece

"You've got your engine nicely warmed up, youngster," he observed
casually 9
"I wish you'd tell me about this queer little old-fashioned boat" 181
He was fighting to prevent himself from being drawn beneath the
jagged, crumbling edge of the hole 244
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STEVE AND THE STEAM ENGINE
CHAPTER I
AN UNPREMEDITATED FOLLY
Steve Tolman had done a wrong thing and he knew it.
While his father, mother, and sister Doris had been absent in New York
for a week-end visit and Havens, the chauffeur, was ill at the hospital,
the boy had taken the big six-cylinder car from the garage without
anybody's permission and carried a crowd of his friends to Torrington
to a football game. And that was not the worst of it, either. At the foot
of the long hill leading into the village the mighty leviathan so
unceremoniously borrowed had come to a halt, refusing to move
another inch, and Stephen now sat helplessly in it, awaiting the aid his
comrades had promised to send back from the town.
What an ignominious climax to what had promised to be a royal
holiday! Steve scowled with chagrin and disappointment.
The catastrophe served him right. Unquestionably he should not have
taken the car without asking. He had never run it all by himself before,
although many times he had driven it when either his father or Havens
had been at his elbow. It had gone all right then. What reason had he to
suppose a mishap would befall him when they were not by? It was
infernally hard luck!

Goodness only knew what was the matter with the thing. Probably
something was smashed, something that might require days or even
weeks to repair, and would cost a lot of money. Here was a pretty
dilemma!
How angry his father would be!
The family were going to use the automobile Saturday to take Doris
back to Northampton for the opening of college and had planned to
make quite a holiday of the trip. Now it would all have to be given up
and everybody would blame him for the disappointment. A wretched
hole he was in!
The boys had not given him much sympathy, either. They had been
ready enough to egg him on into wrong-doing and had made of the
adventure the jolliest lark imaginable; but the moment fun had been
transformed into calamity they had deserted him with incredible speed,
climbing out of the spacious tonneau and trooping jauntily off on foot
to see the town. It was easy enough for them to wash their hands of the
affair and leave him to the solitude of the roadside; the automobile was
not theirs and when they got