The Lure of the Mississippi

ture south was a very busy

down the river in the evening, it was only the strange place an

icksburg? And is Tatanka going?" Tim as

until we get to Memphis. Below Memphis, the river is full of gunboats and the country full of

disliked to part with the animals there was nothing else to do. Old Joe, the

ds, "and I'll sell them in a few days. If any inquisitive

r friends went on

he boys, "till the boat has started. Tatanka and I

was lit by several glaring torches, so that the two scouts could see clearly e

f cord-wood and carrying on board the last sacks of wh

" Barker heard him ask. "I have b

you can ride on a log

the captain. "Get off the ga

to St. Louis,"

"Walking is good, or you can ride on a log, the water is fine.

Hicks," as the man slouched back up t

cks to the captain," Barker chuckled.

eam and the big stern-wheel noisily churned the brown water of the Mississippi. Slowly the heavily-laden boat b

me out of t

s way?" asked Bill, "when

arker told the boys. "He knows it by day a

government engineers, keep the current in the same channel, and numerous guideboards and lights on shore tell the pilot

i steamers depended entirely on the pilots. Their accurate knowledge of the river, their skill in handling the wheel, their quick d

o line the Mississippi just below the Indian Mounds at St. Paul, the trapper and hi

or all were absorbed in

adow caused by the forest or by a high rocky bank. Had the pilot not had the nerve to steer straight into the

r Mississippi, near St. Paul and Minneapolis, almost two thousand miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Here the river grew wider and deeper,

nd maples, and a little later the boys felt sure she would crash against a

n a big slough," Tim whispered

and the boat glided safely past trees and cliffs, pa

lit his red pipe, Barker treated himself to a cigar which his friend

ain," he said, "wishes you to smoke somewhere else. The light from your

lying," Tata

that on a dark night like this, the light from a pipe or cigar annoys

stopped for more freight at Red Wing; and at Lake City, at the head of La

ubt whether he should wait for a threatening storm to pass b

tart her off, she is well built, a little wind won

Mississippi, the river has backed up till it fills the whole valley, two miles wide, and twenty miles long. On this long, deep bod

were rising in the north. When she headed down the lake the wind died down, but half an hour later it broke with a gale from

shing sea of foaming, toppling white-capped waves, which together with the raging w

foot of the lake. He signalled to the engineer for full steam ahead, b

pped turning at once, and the boat swung helpless into the trough of the sea, while

wallow the ship," Tatanka murmured

boat without a fight. In five minutes the carpenters were at work spiking together two long wide planks. A heavy rope, twice as long as

in, and within a few minutes the boat

es had put out the fires, and

, she drifted fast before the wind, and in a little more than half an hour she crashe