enough, but you need more muscle. I'll tell you what I advise. Stay with
me this summer--it won't do you any hurt, and you'll be earning
something--then go to school a term or two, and by that time you'll be
qualified to teach a district school."

"I'll think of what you say, cousin," said James, thoughtfully. "I
don't know but your advice is good."

It is not always easy to say what circumstances have most influence in
shaping the destiny of a boy, but it seems probable that the
conversation which has just been detailed, and the discovery that he was
quite equal in knowledge to a man who had been a schoolmaster, may have
put new ideas into the boy's head, destined to bear fruit later.

For the present, however, his duties as a canal-boy must be attended to,
and they were soon to be resumed.

About ten o'clock that night, when James was on duty, the boat
approached the town of Akron, where there were twenty-one locks to be
successively passed through.

The night was dark, and, though the bowman of the _Evening Star_ did not
see it, another boat had reached the same lock from the opposite
direction. Now in such cases the old rule, "first come, first served,"
properly prevailed.

The bowman had directed the gates to be thrown open, in order that the
boat might enter the lock, when a voice was heard through the darkness,
"Hold on, there! Our boat is just round the bend, ready to enter."