“I must be near a stable,” said Lightfoot. “But I don’t understand it. What does it mean?”
He walked on a little farther and soon he came to another wooden wall. Behind it he could hear horses, or mules, he did not know which, chewing their food and stamping about in their stalls. Lightfoot thought this was queer.
But those of you who have seen canal boats know what it was. Each boat has to carry on it several teams of horses or mules to pull the boat along, since one pair of horses would get tired if they pulled all the while.
A canal, you know, is a long ditch, or stream of water, going from one city to another. Men cut the ditch through the earth and then let the water flow in so boats will float.
Along the side of the ditch of water is a little road, called a “towpath,” and along this the horses walk, pulling, or towing, the canal boat by a rope that is fastened to the boat at one end and to the collars of the horses at the other end. In fact the horses pull the canal boat along the water much as Lightfoot pulled the goat wagon in which the children rode.
Years ago there were many canal boats, but now, since there are so many railroads, the canals are not so often used, for it is slower traveling on them than on the railroad trains, which go very fast.
“Well, I certainly am in a queer place,” thought Lightfoot. “I don’t know whether I am going to like it or not. Still it is better than being beaten with a stick, or having boys chase after you with lumps of coal.”
He listened to the horses stamping about in their stalls, and chewing their food. Then there were more noises, and the sound of men calling: “Gid-dap there!” Next came the pounding of horses’ hoofs on wooden planks, and the voices of men shouting.
“What in the world is going on?” thought Lightfoot.