Page:Life on the Mississippi (IA lifeonmississipptwai).pdf/92

86 "Well, this beats anything. Tell me the name of any point or place I told you."

I studied a while and decided that I couldn't.

"Look here! What do you start out from, above Twelve-Mile Point, to cross over?"

"I—I—don't know."

"You - you—don't know?" mimicking my drawling manner



of speech. What do you know?"

"I—I—nothing, for certain."

"By the great, Cæsar's ghost, I believe you! You're the stupidest dunderhead I ever saw or ever heard of, so help me Moses! The idea of you being a pilot—you! Why, you don't know enough to pilot a cow down a lane."

Oh, but his wrath was up! He was a nervous man, and he shuffled from one side of his wheel to the other as if the