"Engineers get high wages. Then you want a fireman."
"I can get a boy, who will answer very well for a fireman."
"I think not, Lawry. You need a man of experience and judgment. He can save his wages for you in coal. The man whom I employed as a fireman is just the person, and he is at the village now."
"What must I pay him, sir?"
"Two dollars a day. Then your parties will want some dinner on board, and you will need a cook, and two stewards. A woman to do the cooking, and two girls to tend the table, will answer your purpose. You can obtain the three for about seven dollars a week; but your passengers must pay extra for their meals, and you need not charge the expenses of the steward's department to the boat."
"If you expect to succeed, Lawry, you must do your work well. Your boat must be safe and comfortable, and your dinners nice and well served. You will want two deck-hands. Your expenses, including coal, oil for machinery, and hands, will be about twenty dollars a day. If you add repairs, of which steamboats are continually in need, you will run it up to twenty-five dollars a day."
"That will leave me a profit of twenty-five dollars a day," added
Lawry, delighted at the thought.
"If you are employed every day, it will; but you cannot expect to do anything with parties for more than two months in the year."
"I can get some towing to do; and I may make something with passengers."
"Parties will pay best in July and August, and perhaps part of
September; but you must be wide-awake."