"Yes."

"Then you've got a good head--better than I expected. Have you got any
more questions?"

"Just a few."

So the boy continued to ask questions, and the captain was more than
once obliged to confess that he could not answer. He began to form a
new opinion of his young cousin, who, though he filled the humble
position of a canal-boy, appeared to be well equipped with knowledge.

"I guess that'll do, Jim," he said after a while. "You've got ahead of
me, though I didn't expect it. A boy with such a head as you've got
ought not to be on the tow-path."

"What ought I to be doing, cousin?"

"You ought to keep school. You're better qualified than I am to-day, and
yet I taught for three winters in Indiana."

James was pleased with this tribute to his acquirements, especially from
a former schoolmaster.

"I never thought of that," he said. "I'm too young to keep school. I'm
only fifteen."

"That is rather young. You know enough; but I aint sure that you could
tackle some of the big boys that would be coming to school. You know