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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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 home they would not be confronted by irate parents.
How persuasively, reflected Stephen, they had urged him on.
"Oh, be a sport, Steve!" Jack Curtis had coaxed. "Who's going to be the wiser if you do take the car? Anyhow, you have run it before, haven't you? I don't believe your father will mind."
"Take a chance, Stevie," his chum, Bud Taylor, pleaded. "What's the good of