28

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

and not fit to eat with a dog or drink with a nigger; then Bob and the
Child shook hands with each other, very solemn, and said they had always
respected each other and was willing to let bygones be bygones. So then
they washed their faces in the river ; and just then there was a loud order
to stand by for a crossing, and some of them went forward to man the
sweeps there, and the rest went aft to handle the after-sweeps.

1 laid still and waited for fifteen minutes, and had a smoke out of a pipe
that one of them left in reach; then the crossing was finished, and they

AN OLD-FASHIONED BREAK-DOWN.
stumped back and had a drink around and went to talking and singing again.
Next they got out an old fiddle, and one played and another patted juba,
and the rest turned themselves loose on a regular old-fashioned keel-boat
break-down. They couldn't keep that up very long without getting winded,
so by and by they settled around the jug again.
They sung f jolly, jolly raffcman's the life for me/ with a rousing chorus,
and then they got to talking about differences betwixt hogs, and their different
Mnd of habits; and next about women and their different ways: and next
about tae best ways to put out houses that was afire j and next about what