SKETCHES BY THE WAT

front, and so failed to sever the jugular. Struggling around, A
managed to get his hands on the discarded revolver, and shot B dead
with it—and recovered from his o\vn injuries.

Further gossip ;—after which, everybody went below to get after-
noon coffee, and left
me at the wheel,
alone. Something
presently reminded
me of our last hour
in St. Louis, part of
which I spent on this
boat's hurricane deck,
aft. I was joined
there by a stranger,
who dropped into con-
versation with me—a
brisk young fellow,
who said he was born
in a town in the in-
terior of "Wisconsin,
and had never seen a
steamboat until a
week before. Also
said that on the way
down from La Crosse
he had inspected and
examined his boat so
diligently and with
such passionate in-
terest that he had
mastered the whole
thing from stem to
rudder-blade. Asked

me where I was from. I answered, !New England. * Oh, a Yank Ia
said he; and went chatting straight along, without waiting for assent
or denial. He immediately proposed to take me all over the boat and
tell me the names of her different parts, and teach me frfrfiir uses, Before

u

A WORLD OE