Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/204

170 "Why don't you try a hand at digging it out yourself?" questioned McKinley, with a smile.

"Digging it out myself? Not much! That's the government's work. The government cleans out rivers and harbors, don't it?"

"It does, in the interest of navigation. Do you navigate anything on your creek?"

"Well, we run a flatboat there during haying time."

"How many craft pass up and down the creek annually?" questioned the congressman, as he reached for a pad and a pencil as if to put down the figures.

"Eh?"

"How many flatboats are used throughout the year?"

"Oh! Well, I use mine, and my son Jim he used to use hisn, but he left it out on the medder last winter, and this spring the bottom dropped out, and he ain't had gumption enough to put a new bottom in yet."

"Well, I don't believe we can do anything to the creek until your son gets a new bottom in the boat," was McKinley's calm answer. "The government has gone