Year: 1875

'IFFIN, OHIO. THUR
''77-E.1Eaaszn --.s--
climbed up on the beach ] did no.
think it was safe 20 20 to sleep while
this Innate wss Oh watch


! However, must have gone 10 sleep
in the course Of time, because
the next thing was aware Of the fact
that day was breaking, MT. W al
I the wheel again. So il was four
o'clock and all Well-but me 7 felt
like skinful Of dry bones and all OF


them trying to ache at once.


MT.B-asked me what had stayed
up there for. I confessed that it was


to do MT. w. benevolence tell


him where he was. 1t took five min


utes for The entire preposterOusness OF
the thing to filter into Mr. B.
system, aud then I Judge it filled him


nearly to the chin because ne paid


me compIiment-and not much of a
one either. He said


"Well, taking you by-and-iarge, you
do seem to be more different kinds OF
an ass than any creature / ever saw


before. What did you suppose he
wanted to know for


I said / thought it might be con-
venience to him.


convenience Dash Didn't | tell
you that a mans got to know the riv-
er in the night the same as he'd know
his own front hall ?'


| { swell, can follow the front hall
/ in the dark if know it IS the front
hall; but suppose you set me down in
the middle OF it in the dark, and not
tell me which hall it is now am / TO
know ~


"Well, you've got TO, on the river ="


"All right. Ther Pm glad never
said anything to Mr.. W"
81 should say so. Why, he'd have
slammed you through the window
and utterly ruined 4 hundred dollars
worth of window-sash and stuff"


was glad this damage was saved,
for it would have made me unpopular
with tlleowners. They always hated
anybody who had the name Of being
careless and injuring things.


went to work, now, tc learn the
shape of the river; and of al the elud-'
ing and ungraspable objects tkat ever
/ tried to get mind or hands or, that
was the chief / would fasten nv
eyes upon a sharp, wooded point that
projected far into the river some miles
ahead of me, and go to laboriously
photOgraphing its shape upon my
brain; and just as | was beginning to
my satisfaction, we would draw up
toward it and the eXasperating thing
would begin to melt away and fold
back into the bank If there had
been a conspicuous dead tree standing
upon the very point of the cape, /
would ind that tree .inconspicul0usly
merged into the general forest, and
Occupying the middle of the straight
shore when / got abreast of it No
prominent hill would stick to its
shape long enough for me to make up
my mind what its form really was,
but it was as dissolving and change
full as if it had been a mountain of
butter in the hottest corner of the
tropics. Nothing ever had the same
shape when / was coming down
stream that it had borne when I went
up. l mentioned these little difficult
ties to Mr.. b. He said


fThat's the very main virtue of the
thing. If the shape didn't change
every three seconds they wouldn't be
OF any use. Take this place where we
are now, for instance. As long rs
that hill over yonder is only one hill,
I can boom right along the way Pm
going; but the moment it splits at the
top and forms V, know pVe got to
scratch to starboard in hurry, or I'll
bang this boats brains out against a
rock; and then the moment one of the
prOngs of the V swings behind the
other, I've got to waltz to larbOard
again, or pll have q misunderstanding
with shag that would snatch the
keelson out of this steamboat as neat
~ as ifit were silver in your balId.
lftbAt hill didn't change its shape on
bad nights there would, be an awful
steamboat graVe-yard around here
inside of aryear.n


1t was plain that had got to learn
the shape of the river in all the differ
ent ways that could be thought Of
upside down, wrong end first, inside
ont, fore-and-sft, and "thortships."-
and then know what to do on gray
nights when it hadn't any shape at
all. So set about it. In the course
of time l began TO get the best of this
EAaoANJ ACo1Ohy anu my HlEh-
cency moved to the front once more.
MIR. B. was all fixed, and ready to
start it to the rear again. He opened.
ON me after this fashion


How much water did we have to
the middle crossing at HOle-in-the-
Well trip before last ?''


+ / Ieonsidesed stliis, an outrage. I
said di:~iNs y Af A4I4AI GtT6


"Every trip, down and up, the
leadsmen are singing through the
tangled place for three-quarters of an
hour on q stretch. How do you Teck-
on can remember such a mess as
that ?''


my boy, you've got TO remember
it. You've got to remember the ex-
act marks the boat lay in when we
had the shoalest water, in every one
of the two thousand shOaI places be-
tween st. Louis and New Orleans
and you mustn't get the shOal sound
ings and marks OF one trip mixed up.
with the shoal soundiBgs and marks
of another, either. for they're not Of
ten twice alike. You must keep them
separate"


o when 1 came9to myself again,
said W. r.
c'sWhenI get SO that | can do that,
pil be able to raise the dead, and then
L won't have to pilot q steamboat in
order to make living. L want to re-
tire from this business, | want slush-
bucket and brush Pm only fit fOr
roust-abOut. haven't got brains
enough to be pilot; and i'll had /
wouldn't have strength enough to
carry them around, unlessI went on
cTutches."


"Now drop that When l say I'II
learn a man the river, I mean it. And
you can depend omit I'll learn him or
XIII him. % ~ 2 Atlr


There was no use in arguing with
a person like this. l promptly put
such strain on my memory that by
and by even the shOal water and the
counties crossing-marks began to
stay with me. But the result was
just the same. 1 never could get
more than one knotty thing learned
before another presented itself. Now
l had often seen pilots gazing at the
water and pretending to read itas if
itYere a book but il was a book
that told me nothing. a time came
at 4Gst, however, when Mr.. B.
seemed to think me far enough ad-
vanced to bear lesson on water read
ing. So he began ls


"Do you see that long slanting line
on the face of the water Now that's
reef. Moreover, its blue reef.
There is a solid sand-bar under it that
is nearly as straight up and down as
the side of a house. There is plenty
of water close up TO it. If you we're
to hit it you would knock the boats
brains out. Do you see where the
line fringes out at the upper end and
begins TO fade away ?''


''Yes, sir,n


"WelI, THAT is low place, that is
the head of the reef. You can climb
over there, and not hurt anything.
Cross over, now, and follow along
close under the reef-easy water there
not much CURRENT


1 followed the reef along till l ap-
preached the fringed end. Then Mr..


HNow get ready. Wait till ! give
the word. She won't want to mount
the reef; a boat hates shoal water.
Stand ait-wait-keep her well
in hand. NOlO cramp her down
Snatch her snatch her ~


He seized the other side nf fha