CHAPTER VI.
JAMES LEAVES THE CANAL.
James was not long to fill the humble position of driver.

Before the close of the first trip he was promoted to the more responsible office of bowman.

Whether his wages were increased we are not informed.
It may be well in this place to mention that a canal boat required, besides the captain, two drivers, two steersmen, a bowman, and a cook, the last perhaps not the least important of the seven.

"The bowman's business was to stop the boat as it entered the lock, by throwing the bowline that was attached to the bow of the boat around the snubbing post." It was to this position that James was promoted, though I have some doubt whether the place of driver, with the opportunities it afforded of riding on horse or mule-back, did not suit him better.
Still, promotion is always pleasant, and in this case it showed that the boy had discharged his humbler duties satisfactorily.
I have said that the time came when James showed that he was not a coward.

Edmund Kirke, in his admirable life of Garfield, has condensed the captain's account of the occurrence, and I quote it here as likely to prove interesting to my boy readers: "The _Evening Star_ was at Beaver, and a steamboat was ready to tow her up to Pittsburg.