The Portland daily press., 1875-02-20
A Cub" Pilots Experience, or
Learning the River. noif,.
BY MARK TWAIN.

weeks IN making the voyage 1rOn ClnCluHdCi
to New Orleans. This gave me a eLance to
get acquainted with one of the pilots, and he
taught me how to steer the boat, and thus
made the fascination of river life more potent
than ever for me. --....s
1t also gave me achance to get acquainted
with a youth who had taken deck passage
more's the pity; for he easily borrowed SIX
dollars of me on promise to return to the
boat and pay it back to me the day after we
should arrive. But he probably died or ior-
got. for he never came. II was doubtless
the former, since he had said his parents
were wealthy, and he only Travelled deck pas
sage because it was cooler. q "a 47.i''e 3 b
I soon discovered two things. One was
that a vessel would not be likely to sail Tor
the mouth of the Amazon under ten or
twelve years and the, other was that the
nine or ten dollars still lett in my pocket
would not suffice for so imposing an explora,
ton as had planned, even If could aHoro
to wait for ship. Therefore it followed that
I must contriye new career The Paul
Jones was now bound for st. Louis. 1
planned a siege against my pilot, and at the
end of. three hard days he surrendered. He
agreed to teach me the Mississippi river from
New Orleans to st. Louis for sou, paya-
able out of the first wages l should receive
after grad uating. entered upon the small
enterprise of slearning'' twelve or thirteen
nuQQT6u miles vi bllC SlCdO uAAoSioSAPPA Nv ~
with the easy confidence Of my time OF lie.
If had really known what was about to re-
quire of facilities, should not have had the
courage to begin. / supposed that all pilot
had to do was to keep his boat in the river,
and I did not consider that that could be
much of trick, since it was so wide.
The boat backed out from New Orleans at
4 in the afternoon, and it was ''our watch,
until 8. Mr. B., my chief Strengthened
10 roIo tho storms ut
the other boats that lay at the levee, and
then said, 'Here, take her; shave those
steamships as close as you'd peel an apple"
took the wheel, and my heart went down
into my boots; for lie seemed to me that we
were about to scrape the side OIL every snip
in the line, we were so close. held my
breath and began to claw the boat away from
the danger; and had my own opinion OF the
pilot who had known no better than TO get
us into such peril, but I was too wise to ex-
press it. In half a minute had VIDE mar
gin of safety intervening between the Paul
Jones and the ships and within ten seconds
more was set aside in disgrace, and MI.
b was going into danger again, and
fayipg me alive with abuse of my cowardice.
was stung, but / wasIobliged to admire the
easy confidence with which my Chief loafed
from side to side of his wheel, and trimmed
the ships so closely that disaster seemed
easy water was close ashore and the current
outside, and therefore we must hug the bank,
I'D stream, to get the benefit OF the former,
and stay well out, down stream, to take ad-
vantage of the latter. In my own mind re-
solved to be a downstream pilot, and leave
the up-sreaming to people dead OF prudence.
Now and then Mr.. B. called my atten-
ton to certain things. Said he, inns is
Six.Mile Point" I assented. 1t was pleas
ant enough information, but could not see
the bearing of it. / was not conscious that
it was matter of any interest to me. An
other time he said, "This is Twelve Mile
Point.n Later he said, ''This is Nine Mile
Point" They were all about level with the
waters edge; they all looked about alike TO
me; they were mon enormously unpicturesque.
hoped Mr.. B. would change the subject
But no; he would crowd up around point.
hugging the shore with affection. and then
saw: "The slack of water ends here, abreast
this bunch of China-trees /; now we cross ov-
err Ee gave me the wheel once or twice,
but l had no luck. / either came near
chipping off the edge of a sugar plantation,
or else waved to far from shore, and so l
dropped back into disgrace again and got
The watch was ended at last, and we took
supper and went to bed. At midnight the
glare of lantern shone in my eyes, and the
night Waterman said:
aConle! turn out p = gi lDti fi1AJ 9 asI-
And then he1eft. could not understand
this extraordinary procedure; SO presently
gave up trying to, and dozed off to sleep.
Pretty soon the watchman was back again,
and this time he was gruf. l was annoyed.
/ said:
ssWhat do you want to come bothering
around here in the middle Of the night tor?
Now, as like as not L Ii not get TO sleep again
tonight. llE YYvG
"Well, if this amt good, Pm best" ~.
The ''off watch was just turning in, and
I heard some brutal laughter from them, and
such remarks as "Hello watchman ant tue
new cub turned out yet He's delicate likely
Give him some sugar in a rag and send f)r
the chamber-maid to sing rock by baby to
him.
About this time Mr.. b appeared on the
scene Something like minute later was
climbing the pilot-house steps with some OF
myclothes on and the rest in my arms. MT.
B. was close behind, commenting. Here
was something fresh~-this thing of getting
up in the middle of the night to go to work.
1t was a detail In plotting that had never oc-
curred to me at ali. Knew that boats ran
all night, hut somehow had never happened
to reflect that somebody had to get up out OF
a warn, bed to run them. l began to fear
that plotting was not quite so romantic as
had imagined it was; there was something
very real and work-like about this new phase
of it. ~ - Y TFwI
1t was asrather dingy nisht, although far
nurnberot stars were out. The big mate was
at the wheel, and he had the old tub pointed
at a star and was holding her straight up the
middle Of the river. The shores on either
hand were not much more than mile apart,
butthey seemed wonderfully far away and
ever so vague and indistinct. The mate said:
''Weve got to land at Jones' plantation,
Sir" - - A Mw Z "a
The yengeful Spirit in me exulted. said
to myself, wish you Joy of your JOB, Mr..
B.; you'll have good time finding Mr..
Jones' plantation such night as this; and
hope you neyerwill ind it as long as you
live.
Mr.. b. said to the mate: So
upper end Of the plantation, or the low
:m@s.S,W 1NA ,s1AaH1O
81 can'tdo it. The stumps there are out
of water atthis stage. It's no great distance
to tho lower, and you'll have to get along
with That" sE - 80
"All right, Sir. If Jones don't like it he'll
have to lump Is, reckon" I6btl 80
And then the mate left. My exultation
began to cool and my wonder TO come up.
Here was man who not only proposed to
find his plantation on such night, but TO
find either end of it you prefer red. dread
fully wanted to ask question, but was car
rying about as many short answers as my
cargo-room would admit of, so held my
peace. All desired to ask Mr.. B was
the simple question whether he was ass
enough to really imagine he was going to find
that plantation on night, when all plantaa-
tions were exactly alike, and all the same col
or. But held in. used 10 have tine inspir-
ations of prudence In those days. .. s,s
Mr. made for the shore and soon was
scraping it, just the same as if it had been
daylight. And not only that, but singing.
"Father in heaven the day is declining"
&c.
1t seemed TO me that / had put my life in
the keeping of peculiarly reckless outcast.
Presently he turned on me and said.
whats the name Of the first point above
New Orleans ?"
was gratified to be able TO answer prompt
", and i did, said didn't know.
tDon't EnoU?o S& w " ~
This manner jolted me. 1 was down at
the foot again in moment. But had to
say lust what had said before.
"Wel, you're a smart one." said Mr.. B..
What's the name of the next point%"
Once more didn't know.
swell, this beats anything. Tell me the
name oil any point or place l told yOu@
I studied awhile, and decided that l
onu1d't