queer. And you made it all out of
your head naow?' asked the Yankee, looking at the diminutive inventor
before him.

'No, I had to use a good deal of iron,' was the reply of the
youngster, with a quizzical smile.

'You mean you got up the thing yourself?' 'Yes, sir,' was the quiet
but proud reply of the boy.

'Jingo and Jerusalem! but your daddy must be fond of you!' exclaimed
the enthusiastic New Englander, scanning him admiringly from head to
foot.

'I haven't any father.'

'Your mother then.'

'I don't know about that.'

'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
latter based their affection chiefly upon the fact that he never
refused to assist any of them at their tasks, while with the
pocket-knife which he carried he constructed toys which were their
delight. Some of these were so curious and amusing that, had they
been securer by letters patent, they would have brought a competency
to him and his widowed mother.

But Johnny never thought of patenting them, although the principal
support of himself and mother came from one or two