I TAKE A FEW EXTRA LESSONS.

191

that were sometimes surprising for freshness of design and ghastliness
of situation and environment.

Brown was ahcayf watching for a pretext to find fault; and if he
could find no plausible pretext, he would invent one. He would
scold you for shaving a shore, and for not shaving it; for hugging a
bar, and for not hugging it; for * pulling down J when not invited,

and for not pulling down when not invited j for firing up without

orders, and for waiting for orders. In

a word, it was his invariable rule to

find fault with everythwig you did; and

another invariable rule of his was to

throw all his remarks (to 0<

you) into the form of an L

insult.

One day we were ap-
proaching New Madrid,

bound down and heavily

laden. Brown was at

one side of the wheel,

steering; I was at the

other, standing by to

* pull down' or * shove

up.' He cast a furtive

glance at me every now

and then. I had long

ago learned what that

meant; viz., he was

trying to invent a trap

for me. I wondered

what shape it was going

to take. By and by he

stepped back from the wheel and said in his usual snarly way—
* Here!—See if you've got gumption enough to round her to/
This was simply bound to be a success ; nothing could prevent it-

for he had never allowed me to round the boat to before; conse-
quently, no matter how I might do the thing, he could find free fault

with it. He stood back there with his greedy eye on me, and the

* HURLED ME ACROSS THE HOUSE.'