I TAKE A  FEW EXTRA LESSONS.

191

that were sometimes surprising for freshness of design and ghastliness
of situation and environment.
Brown was ahcayf watching for a pretext to find fault; and if he
could find no plausible pretext, he would invent one. He would
scold you for shaving a shore, and for not shaving it; for hugging a
bar, and for not hugging it; for * pulling down ^J when not invited,
and for not pulling down when not invited j for firing up without
orders, and for waiting for orders.    In
a word, it was his invariable rule to
find fault with everythwig you did; and
another invariable rule of his was to
throw all his remarks (to	_0<
you) into the form of an         L
insult.
One day we were ap-
proaching New Madrid,
bound down and heavily
laden.     Brown was at
one side of the wheel,
steering;   I was at the
other,   standing   by  to
* pull down'  or * shove
up.'    He cast a furtive
glance at me every now
and then.    I had long
ago learned   what  that
meant;    viz.,   he    was
trying to invent a trap
for   me.     I   wondered
* HURLED ME ACROSS THE HOUSE.'
what shape it was going
to take.    By and by he
stepped back from the wheel and said in his usual snarly way—
* Here!—See if you've got gumption enough to round her to/
This was simply bound to be a success ; nothing could prevent it-
for he had never allowed me to round the boat to before;  conse-
quently, no matter how I might do the thing, he could find free fault
with it.    He stood back there with his greedy eye on me, and the