The Huge Hunter | Page 6

and so arranged it,
that he would not be in danger of being seen by any curious eyes. He wanted no
disturbance while engaged upon this scheme.
From a neighboring foundry, whose proprietor took great interest in the boy, he secured
all that he needed. He was allowed full liberty to make what castings he chose, and to

construct whatever he wished. And so he began his work.
The great point was to obtain the peculiar motion of a man walking. This secured, the
man himself could be easily made, and dressed up in any style required. Finally the boy
believed that he had hit upon the true scheme.
So he plied harder than ever, scarcely pausing to take his meals. Finally he got the
machine together, fired up, and with feelings somewhat akin to those, of Sir Isaac
Newton, when demonstrating the truth or falsity of some of his greatest discoveries, he
watched the result.
Soon the legs begin moving up and down, but never a stop did they advance! The power
was there, sufficient to run a saw-mill, every thing seemed to work, but the thing
wouldn't go!
The boy was not ready to despair. He seated himself on the bench beside the machine,
and keeping up a moderate supply of steam, throwing in bits of wood, and letting in water,
when necessary, he carefully watched the movement for several hours.
Occasionally, Johnny walked slowly back and forth, and with his eyes upon the 'stately
stepping,' endeavored to discover the precise nature of that which was lacking in his
machine.
At length it came to him. He saw from the first that it was not merely required that the
steam man should lift up its feet and put them down again, but there must be a powerful
forward impulse at the same moment. This was the single remaining difficulty to be
overcome. It required two weeks before Johnny Brainerd succeeded. But it all came clear
and unmistakable at last, and in this simple manner:
(Ah! but we cannot be so unjust to the plodding genius as to divulge his secret. Our
readers must be content to await the time when the young man sees fit to reveal it
himself.)
When the rough figure was fairly in working order, the inventor removed everything
from around it, so that it stood alone in the center of his shop. Then he carefully let on
steam.
Before he could shut it off, the steam man walked clean through the side of his shop, and
fetched up against the corner of the house, with a violence that shook it to its foundation.
In considerable trepidation, the youngster dashed forward, shut off steam, and turned it
round. As it was too cumbersome for him to manage in any other way, he very cautiously
let on steam again, and persuaded it to walk back into the shop, passing through the same
orifice through which it had emerged, and came very nigh going out on the opposite side
again.
The great thing was now accomplished, and the boy devoted himself to bringing it as near
perfection as possible. The principal thing to be feared was its getting out of order, since
the slightest disarrangement would be sufficient to stop the progress of the man.

Johnny therefore made it of gigantic size, the body and limbs being no more than 'Shells,'
used as a sort of screen to conceal the working of the engine. This was carefully painted
in the manner mentioned in another place, and the machinery was made as strong and
durable as it was possible for it to be. It was so constructed as to withstand the severe
jolting to which it necessarily would be subjected, and finally was brought as nearly
perfect as it wag possible to bring a thing not possessing human intelligence.
By suspending the machine so that Its feet were clear of the floor, Johnny Brainerd
ascertained that under favorable circumstances It could run very nearly sixty miles an
hour. It could easily do that, and draw a car connected to it on the railroad, while on a
common road it could make thirty miles, the highest rate at which he believed it possible
for a wagon to be drawn upon land with any degree of safety.
It was the boy's intention to run at twenty miles an hour, while where everything was safe,
he would demonstrate the power of the invention by occasionally making nearly double
that.
As it was, he rightly calculated that when it came forth, it would make a great sensation
throughout the entire United States.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRAPPER AND THE ARTISAN.
'HELLO, YOUNKER! what in thunder yer tryin' to make?'
Johnny Brainerd paused and looked up, not a little startled by the strange voice and the