She wanted me to stay the summer with her, and offered me what was almost a man's wages; which shows how strong I was getting, and how much of a farmer I was.

I did stay and helped through the spring's work; but on Captain Sproule's second passing of Mrs.Fogg's farm, I joined him, not as a driver, but as a full hand.

I kept thinking all the time of my mother, and felt that if I kept to the canal I surely should find some trace of her.

In this I was doing what any detective would have done; for everything sooner or later passed through the Erie Canal--news, goods and passengers.

But I had little hope when I thought of the flood which surged back and forth through this river of news, and of the little bit of a net with which I fished it for information.
All this time the stream of emigration and trade swelled, and swelled until it became a torrent.