94 LIFE OX THE MISSISSIPPI.

are a warning that that troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously •
that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the 4 break' from a
new snag, and he has located himself in the very best place he could
have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single
living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever
going to get through this blind place at night without tlie friendly old
Lindmark 1

No, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river.
All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of
usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a
steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart.
What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a
1 break* that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her
visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols
of hidden decay ? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he
simply Tiew her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome
condition all to himself ? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether
he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade ?