“You needn’t snuffle to me. I don’t ask any favors of you. I am president of the steamboat company, and I suppose you would like to have me get down on my knees and beg you to take command of this boat.”
“Not much,” I replied, laughing.
“You think you are a great man!”
“No, I’m only a boy, like yourself.”
“If I had seen you before the boat started, you should not have gone in her.”
“That game was tried on the other side of the lake. It don’t work well.”
“Don’t you come on board of this boat again; if you do, we will try it on.”
Both of the little magnates down upon me, and I was forbidden to ride in either steamer or cars! Waddie puffed up his cigar and walked away, evidently with the feeling that he was not making much out of me. The Ucayga touched at the wharf, and I went on shore. So did the little magnate of Centreport.
CHAPTER II.
THE AUCTION AT RUOARA.
It was not yet time for the auction, and I waited on the wharf to see the steamer start. She was still a novelty in Ruoara, and many people came down to the shore to observe her beautiful proportions, and the speed with which she cut through the waters. Hundreds of them made the trip to Ucayga and back for the sole purpose of seeing the boat. After the old steamers were taken off, and before the Ucayga was put on the route, the inhabitants of this town had been obliged to cross the ferry to Grass Springs, and take the trains of the Lake Shore Railroad when they wished to go in either direction. The advent of this palatial steamer was therefore a new era to them, and they regarded her with pride and pleasure.