Page:Boys Life of Mark Twain.djvu/111

 wages. He had no board to pay, but there were things he must buy, and his money supply had become limited. Each trip of the Pennsylvania she remained about two days and nights in New Orleans, during which time the young man was free. He found he could earn two and a half to three dollars a night watching freight on the levee, and, as this opportunity came around about once a month, the amount was useful. Nor was this the only return; many years afterward he said:

"It was a desolate experience, watching there in the dark, among those piles of freight; not a sound, not a living creature astir. But it was not a profitless one. I used to have inspirations as I sat there alone those nights. I used to imagine all sorts of situations and possibilities. These things got into my books by and by, and furnished me with many a chapter. I can trace ' the effects of those nights through most of my books, in one way and another."

Piloting, even with Brown, had its pleasant side. In St. Louis, young Clemens stopped with his sister, and often friends were there from Hannibal. At both ends of the line he visited friendly boats, especially the Roe, where a grand welcome was always waiting. Once among the guests of that boat a, young girl named Laura so attracted him that he forgot time and space until one of the Roe pilots, Zeb Leaven worth, came flying aft, shouting:

"The Pennsylvania is backing out!"

A hasty good-by, a wild flight across the decks of several boats, and a leap across several feet of open water closed the episode. He wrote to Laura, but