85 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

CHAPTER IX.
CONTINUED PERPLEXITIES.
THERE was no use in arguing with a person like this. I promptly
put such a strain on my memory that by and by even the shoal
water and the countless crossing-marks began to stay with me. But
the result was just the same. I never could more than get one knotty
thing learned before another presented itself. Now I had often seen
pilots gassing at the water and pretending to read it as if it were a
book; but it was a book that told me nothing. A time came at last,
however, when Mr. Bixby seemed to think me far enough advanced
to bear a lesson on water-reading. So he began—
* Do you see that long slanting line on the face of the water \
Now, that's a reef. Moreover, it's a bluff reef. There is a solid
sand-bar under it that is nearly as straight up and down as the side
of a house. There is plenty of water close up to it, but mighty
little on top of it. If you were to hit it you would knock the boat's
brains out. Do you see where the line fringes out at the upper end
and begins to fade away \'
* Yes, sir.'
* "Well, that is a low place ; that is the head of the reef. You
can climb over there, and not hurt anything. Cross over, now, and
follow along close under the reef—easy water there—not much
current.'
I followed the reef along till I approached the fringed end. Then
Mr. Bixby said—
* Now get ready. Wait till I give the word. She won't want to
mount the reef; a boat hates shoal water. Stand by—wait—wait—
keep her well in hand. Now cramp her down! Snatch her 1 snatch
her I'