Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/46

 takes as much, if not more, skill to manage me than it does to handle an awkward canvas canoe, who is always bobbing about, turning first one way and then another as if he were too contrary to hold a straight course."

"I wasn't intended for a racing boat, and I know I can't compete with such flyers as you and a Rob Roy," said the canvas canoe, modestly; and I afterward found that none of my new acquaintances were half as conceited as they pretended to be. They boasted just to hear themselves talk, and because they had no other way of passing the time when they were unemployed; but each was perfectly willing to acknowledge the superiority of the other in his own particular line of business. "I was intended for a portable craft—something that can be folded into a small compass and carried over a portage without much trouble; and in that respect I am far ahead of a stiff-necked Canuck, who, having made up his mind just how much space he ought to occupy in the world, would rather break than bend to give elbow-room to his betters. "You wanted me to tell you something about Tom Bigden, I