the people of the canals and roads are in Iowa, and in
Vandemark Township.

Buffalo was a marvel to me. It was the biggest town I had ever seen, and
was full of sailors, emigrants, ships, waterside characters and trade;
and I could see, feel, taste, smell, and hear the West everywhere. I was
by this time on the canal almost at my ease as a driver; but here I
flocked by myself like Cunningham's bull, instead of mingling with the
crowds of boys whom I found here passing a day or so in idleness, while
the captains and hands amused themselves as sailors do in port, and the
boats made contracts for east-bound freight, and took it on. Whenever I
could I attached myself to Captain Sproule like a lost dog, not thinking
that perhaps he would not care to be tagged around by a child like me;
and thus I saw things that should not have been seen by a boy, or by any
one else--things that I never forgot, and that afterward had an
influence on me at a critical time in my life. There were days spent in
grog-shops, there were quarrels and brawls, and some fights, drunken men
calling themselves and one another horrible names and bragging of their
vices, women and men living in a terrible imitation of pleasure. I have
often wondered as I have seen my boys brought up cleanly and taught
steady and industrious lives in a settled community, how they would look
upon the things I saw and lived through, and how well they could have
stood the things that were ready to drag me down to the worst vices and
crimes. I moved through all this in a sort of daze, as if it did not
concern me, not even thinking much less of Captain Sproule for his
doings, some of which I did not even understand: for remember I was a
very backward boy for my age. This was probably a good thing for me--a
very good thing. There are things in the Bible which children read
without knowing their meaning, and are not harmed by them. I was harmed
by what I saw in the book of life now opened to me, but not so much as