work begged that some sort of a conveyance be made that could also run
along the track and enable them to ride to work instead of walking. So a
little log house not unlike a log cabin, with a table in the middle and
some chairs around it, was mounted on a cart that fitted the rails, and
a horse was harnessed to the unique vehicle."

"And it was this log cabin on wheels that gave Stephenson his
inspiration for a railroad train!" gasped Doris.

"Yes," nodded her father. "When the engineer saw the crude object the
first question that came to him was why could not a steam locomotive
propel cars filled with people as well as cars filled with coal.
Accordingly he set to work and had several coach bodies mounted on
trucks, installing a lever brake at the front of each one beside the
coachman's box. In front of the grotesque procession he placed a steam
locomotive and when he had fastened the coaches together he had the
first passenger train ever seen."

"It must have been a funny looking thing!" Steve exclaimed, smiling with
amusement at the picture the words suggested.

"It certainly was," agreed his father. "If you really wish to know how
funny, some time look up the prints of this great-great-grandfather of
our present-day Pullman and you will be well repaid for your trouble;
the contrast is laughable."

"But was this absurd venture a success?" queried Mrs. Tolman
incredulously.

"Indeed it was!" returned her husband. "In fact, Stephenson, like Watt,
was one of the few world benefactors whose gift to humanity was
instantly hailed with appreciation. The railroad was, to be sure, a
wretched little affair when viewed from our modern standpoint, for there
were no gates at the crossings, no signals, springless cars, and every
imaginable discomfort. Fortunately, however, our ancestors had not grown
up amid the luxuries of this era, and being of rugged stock that was
well accustomed to hardships of every variety they pronounced the
invention a marvel, which in truth it was.

"You've said it!" chuckled Steve in the slang of the day.

"In the meantime," went on Mr. Tolman, "conditions all over England were
becoming more and more congested, and from every direction a clamor
arose for a remedy. You see the invention of steam spinning machinery
had greatly increased the output of the Manchester cotton mills until
there was no such thing as getting such a vast bulk of merchandise to
those who were eager to have it. Bales of goo