Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-03-25
GFrom the Atlantic Monthly.l
OLD TIMES ON THE MiSSIS
,,',.... ....- .rs SIPPI. ..fstr rf-,..'f
The Continued Perplexities OF
.-..e "Cub" Plotting.
BY MARK TWAIN.

The Continued P6fpteSttISS OF
.-...- "Cub" Plotting. .....
~ -. BY MARK TWAIN. e-r.
AT the end of what seemed atedious
while. | had managed to pack nay head
full of islands, towns, bars, 'spoints,"
and bends and curiously Illuminated
mass of lumber it was, too. However,
inasmuch as ] could shut my eyes and
reel off a good long string of these
names without leaving ost more than
ten miles of river in every fifty, | began
to feel that / could take boat down to.
New Orleans if / could make her skip
those little raps. But Of course my com
r,lacency could hardly get start enough
telfft nv nose q trifie into the air, before
Mr., b would think OF something to
fetchit down again. neday he turned
on me suddenly with this settler
ssWhat Is the shspeot Walnut Bend?"'
He might Just as well have asked me
NV nrandmother's opinion of proto-
Dlas6. l reflected respectfully and then
said I didn't know 1t had any shape.
NV punpowder chief went off with a
bang. of course, and then he went on
loading and firing until hewas out OF ad-
iectives .-..-. r. su-E..s
I had learned long ago that he only
carried Just go many rounds of aInmuni-
ton, and was sure TO subside into very
Iplscable ana even reTnOrsefuI old
snaaoth-hoFe as, soon as they were all
cone. That word tod IS merely atfec-
| fionate he was not more than thirty
-four. waited. BY and by be said;
tsMy boy, you've got to know the
| shape of the river perfectly. 1t is all
there is left to steer by on q very dark
night. Everything else is blotted out
| and gone. But mind you, it hasn't the
4 same shape ia the night that 1t has In
the daytime. : r.. -..-.....s ~,
ssFIow on earth am I ever going. to
/ learnt then 2 III :. :,
4 itHow DO YOU follow q hall st home
in the dark d? Because you know the
] shape of it. You cant see II. = ..--
i A'Do YOU mean to say that I've got &c
know sll the million trifiing variations
j of shape in the banks Of this internjn-
/, abfe. flyer a. well. as know the shape
3f==ss.,-sCJn niy honor .ylsi've got to know
them better than any man ever did
know the shapes of the halls In his own
house /"
| Il wish | was dead r IL. r.
Now / don't want to discourage yous
butt. .........- >,
s'Weli, pile il on me l might as wei
| have it now as another time ......
e.You. see, this has got to be learned
there isn't any getting around 1t. a
I clear starlight night throws such heavy
shadows that if you didn't know thu
shane of the shore perfectly you woulC
claw away from every bunch of timber
because YOU would take the black
shadow Of it for a solid cape and you
see YOU would be getting scared to deatf
every fifteen minutes by the watch
You would be fifty yards from the shore
all the time when you ought to be with
in twenty feet of it. You can't see
snar in one of these shadows, but yot
know exactly where it is, and the shape
of the river tells you when you are com
ing TO it. Then there's your pitch dark
NIGHTS: the river is a very dltferen
shane on a pitch dark night from wha
it Is on a starlight night. All shore!
seem to be straight lines, then, an(
mighty dim ones, too; and you'd rm
them for straight lines, only you know
better. You boldly drive your boo
RIGHT into what seems TO be a solid
straight wall you knowing very well Il
reality there is a curve there), and tina
wall falls back and makes way for you
Then there's your gray mist. you tax
a night when there's one of these grlsly
driZzly, gray mists, and then there ism
any particular shape to shore. gra
mist would tangle the head OF the oldes
man that ever lived. Well, then, differ
pnf kinds of moonlight change the shap
Eof the river in different ways. 1o
! SEE
!. ssOh, don't say any more, please
Have l got to learn the shape OF the IlN
er according to all these five hundre
: thousand different ways? II | tired
carry all that cargo in my head 1t woui
make me stoop-shOuldered.
mo you only learn the shape OF Ii
river and you learn it with such aos'
) lute certainty that you can always ste'
9 by the shape that's in your head, an
e never mind the one that's before you
@ eyes.
4 have learned it can ! depend on 1t w
l.. ii keep the same form and not go foC
G ing round r. ..-.. ......
n Before Mr.. b could answer, NJ
{. W. came in to take the watch, al
he said
s stB----, you'll have TO look out +
= Presidents Island and all that count
;, clear away up above the Old Hen a.
= Chickens. The banks are eaging a.
l. the shape Of the shores is changing j
d every thing Why, you know the poi
it above 40. You can 60 up inside the
'. sycamore snag, now. 81. ....s. g.. -.
"a So that question. was answered ht
q were leagues of shore changing shaI
NJ, xx1oro- ,l,xur inf the Y1lII0 ara
e. Two things seemed pretty apparent
re me. One was, that in order to be a
le lot man had got to learn more than a
es one man ought to be allowed to know
IL and the other was that he must learn
Il. all over again ia a,different way eve
ai twenty-foar hours. ~, -, -
OF / went to work now to learn. the sh
SO + of the river and of all the eludtng 9
ne angraspable object that ever 1 tried
he get mind or hands on that was the cha
ot / would fasten my eyes upon q sha
er, wooded point that projected lar INTO
Id river some miles ahead of me, and 60
on. faboriously photogaphing IFS sh;
OIL upon my brain; and Just as | was bee
70 ming to succeed to nay satisfaction
it would draw llI1 toward it, and the e1
he perating thing would begin tomelt az
OF and fold back into the bank. If th
ma had been a conspicuous dead tree sta
eT7 ing upon the very point of the cap
AN would find that tree inconsplcu0l
en- merged into the. general forest, and
cunYing the middle of q straight. sh
WIEN I got abreast of it No pronlir
oW Hill won &, stick to its shape long emo
psi. for me to make mp my mind VIVA
ore form really was, but it was as, dissol'
/ Ad changeful as if it had been mo