114

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

* towhead ' which, she was about to knock into the middle of the Gulf
of Mexico !

By and by the watchman came back and said—

* Didn't that lunatic tell you he was asleep, when he first came up
herel'

'No.'

c Well, he was. I found him walking along on top of the railings,
just as unconcerned as another man would walk a pavement; arid I
put him to bed; now just this minute there he was again, away
astern, going through that sort of tight-rope devilry the same as
before.'

6 Well, I think I'll stay by, next time he has one of those fits.
But I hope he'll have them often. You just ought to have seen him
take this boat through Helena crossing. / never saw anything so
gaudy before. And if he can do such gold-leaf, kid-glove, diamond-
breastpin piloting when he is sound asleep, what couldn't he do if he
was dead!'