In the rough equivalent of a double-dog-dare among writers, I’ve been challenged to “Look, show and tell!”
KatharineHerndon started this game with Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher and now it is off to me. Elizabeth posted her excerpt from a project she is working on with me anyway. I wonder what Katharine used, since she is in on the River Town project as well…
“There is none faster or stronger on this river in her size. Some of the great boats on the Mississippi could push her around, but other than that, there’s no equal to her. She can carry more cargo, push more barges and still get there faster than any other ‘wheeler,” Dawson said, a touch of father’s pride entering his voice. He was a father, but his own children were away, living with his sister in Pittsburgh and the Miss Jayne Marie was all he had left.
“How can that be, Captain Dawson?” Winthrop asked, turning away from the boat to look Dawson in the eye for the first time. “The keel for the Miss Jayne Marie was laid just up the river, right alongside other sternwheelers that work this river. What makes this one special?”
“Well sir, boats aren’t as simple as all that. It was me and Mr. Hamrick bein’ up there every day while they laid the boilers and setting the wheel into place. We picked the gears and showed them boilermakers what we wanted,” Dawson said. “She isn’t flashy I’ll grant ya, but that’s not what you pay us for. You pay us to run up and down this river and make you money. That we do.”
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