After between two an' three years I had fifty or sixty hosses an' mules, an' took all sorts of towin' jobs.

Then a big towin' concern quit bus'nis, an' I bought their hull stock an' got my money back three four times over, an' by the time I was about twenty-one I had got ahead enough to quit the canal an' all its works fer good, an' go into other things.

But there was where I got my livin' after I run away f'm Buxton Hill.

Before I got the job of lock-tendin' I had made the trip to Albany an' back twice--'walkin' my passage,' as they used to call it, an' I made one trip helpin' steer, so 't my canal experience was putty thorough, take it all 'round." "It must have been a pretty hard life," remarked John.
David took out his penknife and proceeded to impale his cigar upon the blade thereof.

"No," he said, to John's proffer of the box, "this 'll last quite a spell yet.