LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI

It

template me through leather—don't use the naked eye ! I'm the man with
a petrified heart and biler-iron bowels! The massacre of isolated communi-
ties is the pastime of my idle moments, the destruction of nationalities the
serious business of my life ! The boundless vastness of the great American
desert is my enclosed property, and I bury my dead on my own premises! *
He jumped up and cracked his heels together three times before he lit (they

cheered fri™ again), and as he come
down he shouted out: ' Whoo-oop !
bow your neck and spread, for the
pet child of calamity's a-coming''

Then the other one went to
swelling around and blowing again
—the first one—the one they called
Bob; next, the Child of Calamity
chipped in again, bigger than ever;
then they both got at it at the same
time, swelling round and round each
other and punching their fists most
into each other's faces, and whoop-
ing and jawing like Injuns; then
Bob called the Child names, and the
Child called him names back a^ain:
next, Bob called him a heap rougher
names and the Child come back at
him with the very worst kind of
language; next, Bob knocked the
Child's hat off, and the Child picked
it up and kicked Bob's ribbony hat
about six foot; Bob went and got
it and said never mind, this warn't
going to be the last of this thing,
because he was a man that never
forgot and never forgive, and so
the Child better look out, for there
was a time a-coming, just as sure as
he was a living man, that he would
have to answer to him with the best blood in his body. The Child said no
mart, was willinger than he was for that time to come, and he would give
Bob fair warning, now} never to cross his path again, for he could never rest
till he had waded in his blood, for such was his nature, though he was
sparing him now on account of his family, if he had one.

Both of them was edging away in different directions, growling and

ABOUND IN A CIRCLE.'