42 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

wharf, and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shadow of them;
two or three wood flats at the head of the wharf, but nobody to listen
to the peaceful lapping of the wavelets against them; the great
Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-
wide tide along, shining in the sun; the dense forest away on the
other side; the * point' above the town, and the * point' below,
bounding the river-glimpse and turning it into a sort of sea, and
withal a very still and brilliant and lonely one. Presently a film of

*ALIi GO HURRYING TO THE
WHARF.'

dark smoke appears- above one of those remote e points;' instantly a
negro drayman, famous for his quick eye and prodigious voice, lifts
up the cry,' S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'!' and the scene changes ! The
town drunkard stirs, the clerks wake up, a furious clatter of drays
follows, every house and store pours out a human contribution, and
all in a twinkling the dead town is alive and moving. Drays, carts,
men, boys, all go hurrying from many quarters to s, common centre,
the wharf. Assembled there, the people fasten their eyes upon the