'Say, you, can't yer tell a feller 'bout it?'

'Not now; I haven't time.'

As the steam horse was to rest for the present, he was 'put up.' The
engineer opened several cavities in his legs and breast, and different
parts of his body, and examined the machinery, carefully oiling the
various portions, and when he had completed, he drew a large oil skin
from the wagon, which, being spread out, covered both it and the steam
man himself.

CHAPTER III. A GENIUS.

HAVING PROGRESSED thus far in our story, or properly having began in
the middle, it is now necessary that we should turn back to the proper
starting point.

Several years since a widow woman resided in the outskirts of St.
Louis, whose name was Brainerd. Her husband had been a mechanic, noted
for his ingenuity, but was killed some five years before by the
explosion of a steam boiler. He left behind him a son, hump-backed,
dwarfed, but with an amiable disposition that made him a favorite with
all with whom he came in contact.

If nature afflicts in one direction she frequently makes amends in
another direction, and this dwarf, small and misshapen as he was, was
gifted with a most wonderful mind. His mechanical ingenuity bordered
on the marvelous. When he went to school, he was a general favorite
with teachers and pupils. The former loved him for his sweetness of
disposition, and his remarkable proficiency in all studies, while the