The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-13
sLunnEsasa.

wis eyehG, sleep sssdetly 1otA op3rsA O.
Dear little head, that lies in calm content
Within the gracious hollow that God made
every human shoulder; where - meant
Some tired head for comfort should be laid.
Most like . heavy-folded rose thou art,
In summer ar reposing, warm and still.
Dream thy sweet dreams Upon my quiet heart;
watch thy alumber, nousht shall do thee Ill.
OLD TINES ON THE MISSISSIPPI
"Cub's" Pxpsrtences-Dimcuiti At
tending The Mental PhotographIng OF
Two Theasaad Miles OF River Bank.
In the February Atlantic Mark Twain
contributes the narrative of his expert
encrs as "cub" pilot or, the Mississippi
steamer Paul Jones.i What With lyiss
on the rocks four days at Louisville and
some other Delays, says Twain, the poor
old Panl Joreslosld awsy sbout too
weeks he=AbmHCnAlp aH to Nv
Orlean4 sThis g1yg md Chance to get
acquainted witb'Slss - the-ptoas, am
he taught me hS.Isssssr theboat, ma
thus made the fascination Of river life
more poteS than epef IA Ne.
It also Eve ma ehancs to get ae4
quainted Nth yo1th vho Id taken
deck pass.ee-m5fe's the pity for he
easily borrowed SIX dollars from me on
q promise to -etufn to the boat and pay
it back tome the day after we should
arrive. But he probably died OF forgot,
for he never 0nes u MAS doubtless
the former, since he has said his parents
were wealthy, aud he only travelled deck
passage because it waa cooler.
I soon discovered two things. One
was that vessel would not be likely to
sail for the mouth of the Amazon under
ten or twelve years and the other was
that the nine or ten dollars still left in
my pocket would not sufice for so linz
posing an exploration ~ had planned,
even il I could afford to wait for ship.
Therefore, it followed that must con-
trive . new career. The Paul Jones
was now bound for ST. Louis. Iplanned
a siege against my pilot. and at the end
of three hard days he surrendered. I
entered upon the small enterprise of
cleaning" twelve or thirteen hundred
miles of the CREST Missisnippiriv with
the easy confidence of my time of Life.
If had really hown what was about
to require Of my faculties I should not
have had the courage to begin. sup
posed 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 q
trick, since it was 20 wide.
The boat backed out from New Or
leans at four in the afternoon, and it
was "our watch" until eight. Mr..
B",my chief. "stEaightened her mp,
plowed her along past the sterns of the
other boats that lay at the 1evee, and
then said, "Hefe, fake her; shave
those steamships as cloee as you'd peel
an apple" took the wheel, and my
heart went down into my boots for it
seemed to me that We were about to
scrape the side of every ship in the line,
We were go close. Iheld my breath and
began to claw the boat away from the
danger; and bad my own opinion of
the pilot who had known no better than
to get us into such peril, but was too
wise to express it. In half minute.
I had wide margin of safety inter-
vening between the Paul Jones and the
the ships and within ten seconds more
I was set aside in disgrace, and Mr..
B was-gGng into daneerS ssain and
faying me alive with abuse of my cow
ardice. I was stung, but I was obliged
to admire the easy corfdence with |
which my chief loafed from side 70 hide
of his wheel, and trimmed the ships 90
closely that disaster seemed ceasolessly /
imminent. When he had cooled . liz
tie he told me that the easy wstes was
close ashore and the current eutside,
and therefore we must hug the bank mp
stream to get the benz ft of the foemer,
and stay we'll ont, dow1stxeam, 70 take
advantage of the laSer In my own
mind I resolved to b down-stssam
pilot and leave the up streaming 10
people dead to prudence
KDgLL convERsxrrpN. 4
Now and then Hr. B. called my |
attention TO certain tEfnEs. 6sid be,
"This is Six mile poine:'S a.entsd.
It was pleasant snopGt fnfosmAtion,
but I could not see the 64ing a It /
was not conscious thatlfsRas a.nattsr
of any interessto ne. Anothef silne he
said, "This is Nine Mile point. 5I;s$ef
he said, "Thn is r~elye- Mile point.
They were ali about lsyel With the
waters edge = they AZ looked sbout |
alike to me : they we've monotcnously |
unpicturesque. I hopsd MI.
would change fhe subject. But no he !
would crowd up around . point. hing
ging the shore with sfasction, md then
say: "The- slack wxssR ends hefe,
abreast this bunch of China tres now
re cross over" So he crossed over.
He gave me the wheel once or twice,
but had,no luck. either came near |
chipping of the edge of n sugar plan
tation, or else waved too far from
shore, and 20 dropped back into dis |
grace again and got abused.
SOMETHING LIKE WORK.
The watch was ended at last, and we |
took supper and went to bed. At mid
night the glare Of q lantern shone in my I
eyes and the night wstchman said -
"Comc, turn out r.
And then he left. I could not I'M
derstand this extraordinary procedure,
so 1 presently evs up trying to and
dozed of to sleep. Pretty soon the
Waterman was back again, and this time
he was gruff. Twas annoyed. I said
"What do you want to come bother
ing around here in the middle of the |
night for? Now - Ike a not I'll not !
get to sleep again tonight"
The Waterman said
"Well, If this amt good I'm best"