Page:Life on the Mississippi (IA lifeonmississipptwai).pdf/108



T the end of what seemed a tedious while, I had managed to pack my head full of islands, towns, bars, "points," and bends; and a curiously inanimate mass of lumber it was, too. However, inasmuch as I could shut my eyes and reel off a good long string of these names without leaving out more than ten miles of river in every fifty, I began to feel that I could take a boat down to New Orleans if I could make her skip those little gaps. But of course my complaceney could hardly get start enough to lift my nose a trifle into the air, before Mr. Bixby would think of