234

LIFE 0LV THE MISSISSIPPI.

amidships, in a big river, and just let her go; it was all you had to
do. She would hold herself on a star all night, if you let her alone.
You couldn't ever feel her rudder. It wasn't any more labour to
steer her than It is to count the Republican vote in a South Carolina
election. One morning, just at daybreak, the last trip she ever made,
they took her rudder aboard to mend it \ I didn't know anything

THE VOTE.

about ifc; I backed her out from the wood-yard and went a-weaving
down the river all serene. When I had gone about twenty-three
miles, and made four horribly crooked crossings------*
< Without any rudder ?'
* Yes—old O&pt. Tom appeared on the roof and began to find fknlt
with me for running such a dark night
* Saeh a dark night f—Why, you i