"I don't want anything except a chance to work, but I'll tell you what
you may do for me if you will. Now that poor Martin is dead the ferry
privilege will be to lease again, I'd like to get it for a good long
term. Maybe I can make something out of it by being always ready to
row people across, and I may even be able to put on something better
than a skiff after awhile. I'll pay the village what Martin paid."

The gentlemen were glad enough of a chance to do Joe even this small
favor, and there was no difficulty in the way. The authorities gladly
granted Joe a lease of the ferry privilege for twenty years, at twenty
dollars a year rent, which was the rate Martin had paid.

At first Joe rowed people back and forth, saving what money he got
very carefully. This was all that could be required of him, but it
occurred to Joe that if he had a ferry boat big enough, a good many
horses and cattle and a good deal of freight would be sent across the
river, for he was a "long-headed" fellow as I have said.

One day a chance offered, and he bought for twenty-five dollars a
large old wood boat, which was simply a square barge forty feet long
and fifteen feet wide, with bevelled bow and stern, made to hold cord
wood for the steamboats. With his own hands he laid a stout deck
on this, and, with the assistance of a man whom he hired for that
purpose, he constructed a pair of paddle wheels. By that time Joe was
out of money, and work on the boat was suspended for awhile. When
he had accumulated a little more money, he bought a horse power, and
placed it in the middle of his boat, connecting it with the shaft of
his wheels. Then he made a rudder and helm, and his horse-boat was
ready for use. It had cost him about a hundred dollars besides his own
labor upon it, but it would carry live stock and freight as well as