steam a vessel up those streams against the remarkably
swift currents, high-pressure engines had to be adopted generally. In
that year, however, there were still a number of boats on the
Mississippi and Ohio which, like the _Champion_, had low-pressure
engines and the grotesque walking-beams.

One day it was discovered that the _Champion's_ escapement-tubes were
broken, and no signal could be given to a landing-place not far ahead.
A rival steamboat was just a little in advance, and bade fair to capture
the large amount of freight known to be at the landing.

"I'll make them see us, sir!" cried a bright boy, who seemed to be about
fourteen years old. He stood on the deck close to where the captain was
bewailing his misfortune.

Without another word, the lad climbed up over the roof of the
forecastle, and, fearlessly catching hold of the end of the walking-beam
when it inclined toward him with the next oscillation of the engine,
swung himself lithely on top of the machinery. It was with some
difficulty that he maintained his balance, but he succeeded in sticking
there for fifteen minutes. He had taken off his coat, and he was
swinging it to and fro.

The plan succeeded. Although the other boat beat the _Champion_ into
port, the crowd there had seen the odd spectacle of a person mounted on
the walking-beam of the second vessel, and, wondering over the cause,
paid no attention to the landing of the first boat, but awaited the
arrival of the other.

The incident gave the master of the _Champion_ an idea. He took the boy
as a permanent member of the crew, and assigned him to the post of
"walking-beam boy," buying for him a large and beautiful flag. Ever
afterward, when within a mile of any town, the daring lad was to be seen
climbing up to his difficult perch, pausing on the roof of the
forecastle to get his flag from a box that had been built there for it.
By and by he made his lofty position easier and more picturesque by
straddling the walking-beam, well down toward the end, just as he would
have sat upon a horse.

This made a pretty spectacle for those upon shore who awaited the boat's
arrival. They saw a boy bounding up and down with the great seesawing
beam. For a second he would sink from view, but up he bobbed suddenly,
and, like a clear-cut silhouette, he waved the Stars and Stripes high in
the air with only the vast expanse of sky for a background. The vision
was only for an instant, for both flag and boy w