78

LIFE 6LY THE MISSISSIPPI.

* How do you follow a hall at home in the dark ? Because you
know the shape of it. You can't see it.'

* Do you mean to say that I've got to know all the million trifling
variations of shape in the banks of this interminable river as well as
I know the shape of the front hall at home 1'

e On my honour, you've got to know them better than any man
ever did know the shapes of the halls in his own house.'
c I wish I was dead I'

'LOADING AND FIBIXG.

t Now I don't want to discourage you, but-

c "Well, pile it on me; I might as well have it now as another
time.'
*You see, this has got to be learned; there isn't any getting
around it. A clear starlight night throws such heavy shadows that
if yon didn't know the shape of a shore perfectly you would claw
away from every bunch of timber, because you would take the black
shadow of it for a solid cape; and you see you would be getting
scared to death every fifteen minutes by the watch. You would be