TH'JB JBOYS* AMBITION. *$
coming boat as upon a wonder they are seeing for the first time. And
the boat is rather a handsome sight, too. She is long and sharp and
trim and pretty; she has two tall, fancy-topped chimneys, with a
gilded device of some kind swung between them; a fanciful pilot-
house, all glass and ' gingerbread/ perched on top of the * texas ' deck
behind them; the paddle-boxes are gorgeous with a picture or with
gilded rays above the boat's name; the boiler deck, the hurricane
deck, and tho texas deck are fenced and ornamented with clean white
railings; there is a tiag gallantly flying from the jack-staff; the
furnace doors are open and the fires glaring bravely; the upper decks
are black with passengers; the captain stands by the big bell, calm,
imposing, the envy of all; great volumes of the blackest smoke are
rolling and tumbling out of the chimneys—a husbanded grandeur
created with a bit of pitch pine just before arriving at a town; the
crew are grouped on the forecastle; the broad stage is run far out
over the port bow, and an envied deck-hand stands picturesquely on
the end of it with a coil of rope in his hand; the pent steam is
screaming through the gauge-cocks; the captain lifts his hand, a bell
rings, the wheels stop; then they turn back, churning the water to
foam, and the steamer is at rest. Then such a scramble as there is
to get aboard, and to get ashore, and to take in freight and to dis-
charge freight, all at one and the same time; and such a yelling and
cursing as the mates facilitate it all with ! Ten minutes later the
steamer is under way again, Tvith no flag on the jack-staff and no
black smoke issuing from the chimneys. After ton more minutes
the town is dead again, and the town drunkard asleep by the skids
once more.
My father was a justice of the peace, and I supposed he possessed
the power of life and death over all men and could hang anybody that
offended him. This was distinction enough for me as a general
thing ; but the desire to be a steamboatman kept intruding, neverthe-
less. I first wanted to be a cabin-boy, so that I could come out with
a white apron on and shake a table-cloth over the side, where all my
old comrades could see me; later I thought I would rather be the
deck-hand who stood on the end of the stage-plank with the coil of
rope in his hand, because he was particularly conspicuous. But these
were only day-dreams,—they were too heavenly to be contemplated