It
required two weeks before Johnny Brainerd succeeded. But it all came
clear and unmistakable at last, and in this simple manner:
(Ah! but we cannot be so unjust to the plodding genius as to divulge
his secret. Our readers must be content to await the time when the
young man sees fit to reveal it himself.)
When the rough figure was fairly in working order, the inventor
removed everything from around it, so that it stood alone in the
center of his shop. Then he carefully let on steam.
Before he could shut it off, the steam man walked clean through the
side of his shop, and fetched up against the corner of the house, with
a violence that shook it to its foundation. In considerable
trepidation, the youngster dashed forward, shut off steam, and turned
it round. As it was too cumbersome for him to manage in any other way,
he very cautiously let on steam again, and persuaded it to walk back
into the shop, passing through the same orifice through which it had
emerged, and came very nigh going out on the opposite side again.
The great thing was now accomplished, and the boy devoted himself to
bringing it as near perfection as possible. The principal thing to be
feared was its getting out of order, since the slightest
disarrangement would be sufficient to stop the progress of the man.
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