you already know as much as an ordinary water boy, and just here we will
say that we have seen water haulers that were more capable of handling
the engine for which they were hauling water, than the engineer, and the
engineer would not have made a good water boy, for the reason that he
was lazy, and we want the reader to stick a pin here, and if he has any
symptoms of that complaint, don't undertake to run an engine, for a lazy
engineer will spoil a good engine, if by no other means than getting it
in the habit of loafing.


PART FIRST ______

In order to get the learner started, it is reasonable to suppose that
the engine he is to run is in good running order. It would not be fair
to put the green boy onto an old dilapidated, worn-out engine, for he
might have to learn too fast, in order to get the engine running in good
shape. He might have to learn so fast that he would get the big head,
or have no head at all, by the time he got through with it. And I don't
know but that a boy without a head is about as good as an engineer with
the big head. We will, therefore, suppose that his engine is in good
running order. By good running order we mean that it is all there, and
in its proper place, and that with from ten to twenty pounds of steam,
the engine will start off at a good lively pace. And let us say here,
(remember that we are talking of the lone engine, no load considered,)
that if you are starting a new engine and it starts off nice and easy
with twenty pounds, you can make up your mind that you have an engine
that is going to be nice to handle and give you but little, if any,
trouble. But if it should require fifty or sixty pounds to start it,
you want to keep your eyes open, something is tight; but don't take it
to pieces. You might get more pieces than you would know what to do