68

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

pilots in any way they coiild. They were likewise welcome because
all pilots are tireless talkers, when gathered together, and as they
talk only about the river they are always understood and are always
interesting. Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth
but the river, and his pride in his occupation surpasses the pride of
kings.

We had a fine company of these river-inspectors along, this trip.
There were eight or ten; and there was abundance of room for them
in our great pilot-house. Two or three of them wore polished silk
hats, elaborate shirt-fronts, diamond breastpins, kid gloves, and

patent-leather boots. They were choice
in their English, and bore themselves
with a dignity proper to men of solid
means and prodigious reputation as pilots. The others were more or
less loosely clad, and wore upon their heads tall felt cones that were
suggestive of the days of the Commonwealth,
I was a cipher in this august company, and felt subdued, not to
say torpid. I was not even of sufficient consequence to assist at the
wheel when it was necessary to put the tiller hard down in a hurry ;
the guest that stood nearest did that when occasion required—and
this was pretty much all the time, because of the crookedness of the
channel and the scant water. I stood in a corner j and the talk I
listened to took the hope all out of me. One visitor said to another—