durable roadbed."

"Were any more railroads like the Quincy road built in America?"
questioned Steve.

"Yes, a railroad very much like it was built in the Pennsylvania mining
country to transport coal from the mines at Summit down to the Lehigh
Valley for shipment. An amusing story is told of this railroad, too. It
extended down the mountainside in a series of sharp inclines between
which lay long stretches of level ground. Now you know when you coast
downhill your speed will give you sufficient impetus to carry you quite
a way on a flat road before you come to a stop. So it was with this
railroad. But the force the cars gained on the hillside could not carry
them entirely across these long levels, and therefore platform cars were
built on which a number of mules could be transported and later
harnessed to the cars to pull them across the flat stretches. At the end
of each level the mules would be taken aboard again and carried down to
the next one, where they were once more harnessed to the cars. Now the
tale goes that to the chagrin of the railroad people the mules soon grew
to enjoy riding so much that they had no mind to get out and walk when
the level places were reached and it became almost impossible to make
them. All of which proves the theory I advanced before--that too much
luxury is not good for any of us and will even spoil a perfectly good
mule."

Steve chuckled in response.

"I'm afraid with railroads like these America did not make much
progress," he said.

"No very rapid strides," owned his father. "Nevertheless men were
constantly hammering away at the railroad idea. In out-of-the-way
corners of the country were many persons who had faith that somehow,
they knew not how, the railroad would in time become a practical agency
of locomotion. When the Rainhill contest of engines took place in
England before the opening of the Liverpool-Manchester road, and
Stephenson carried off the prize, Horatio Allen, one of the engineers of
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, was sent over to examine the
locomotives competing and if possible buy one for a new railroad they
hoped to put into operation. Unluckily none of the engines were for sale
but he was able to purchase at Stourbridge a steam locomotive and this
he shipped to New York. It reached there in 1829--a ridiculous little
engine weighing only seven tons. Before its arrival a track of hemlock
rails fastened to hemlock ties had been laid and as the Lac