CHAPTER III.
_INTERNAL NAVIGATION .-- AN UNFORTUNATE INVENTOR_.
The village not only has a railroad running by it, but it has a canal upon which a large amount of traffic is done.

There has been a good deal of agitation lately concerning the possibility of improving locomotion upon the canal, and the company offered a reward for the best device that could be suggested in that direction.

A committee was appointed to examine and report upon the merits of the various plans submitted.

While the subject was under discussion one boat-owner, Captain Binns, made an experiment upon his own account.
He had a pair of particularly stubborn mules to haul his boat, and it occurred to him that he might devise some scientific method of inducing the said mules to move whenever they were inclined to be baulky.

Both mules had phlegmatic temperaments; and when they made up their minds to stop, they would do so and refuse to go, no matter with what vigor the boy applied the whip.