“That’s easy enough.  He lost fifty dollars and the boots.”

“I don’t think that’s quite right,” said James, smiling.

“Of course it is.  Didn’t he have to pay back fifty dollars in good money, and didn’t the man walk off with the boots?”

“That’s true; but he neither lost nor made by changing the bill.  He received fifty dollars in good money and paid back the same, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever he lost his customer made, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Well, the man walked off with forty-five dollars and a pair of boots.  The other five dollars the shoemaker kept himself.”

“That’s so, Jim.  I see it now, but it’s rather puzzling at first.  Did you make that out yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ve got a good head—­better than I expected.  Have you got any more questions?”

“Just a few.”

So the boy continued to ask questions, and the captain was more than once obliged to confess that he could not answer.  He began to form a new opinion of his young cousin, who, though he filled the humble position of a canal-boy, appeared to be well equipped with knowledge.

“I guess that’ll do, Jim,” he said after a while.  “You’ve got ahead of me, though I didn’t expect it.  A boy with such a head as you’ve got ought not to be on the tow-path.”

“What ought I to be doing, cousin?”

“You ought to keep school.  You’re better qualified than I am to-day, and yet I taught for three winters in Indiana.”

James was pleased with this tribute to his acquirements, especially from a former schoolmaster.

“I never thought of that,” he said.  “I’m too young to keep school.  I’m only fifteen.”

“That is rather young.  You know enough; but I aint sure that you could tackle some of the big boys that would be coming to school.  You know enough, but you need more muscle.  I’ll tell you what I advise.  Stay with me this summer—­it won’t do you any hurt, and you’ll be earning something—­then go to school a term or two, and by that time you’ll be qualified to teach a district school.”

“I’ll think of what you say, cousin,” said James, thoughtfully.  “I don’t know but your advice is good.”

It is not always easy to say what circumstances have most influence in shaping the destiny of a boy, but it seems probable that the conversation which has just been detailed, and the discovery that he was quite equal in knowledge to a man who had been a schoolmaster, may have put new ideas into the boy’s head, destined to bear fruit later.

For the present, however, his duties as a canal-boy must be attended to, and they were soon to be resumed.

About ten o’clock that night, when James was on duty, the boat approached the town of Akron, where there were twenty-one locks to be successively passed through.

The night was dark, and, though the bowman of the Evening Star did not see it, another boat had reached the same lock from the opposite direction.  Now in such cases the old rule, “first come, first served,” properly prevailed.