I Kept My Hat Off All The Time, And Stayed Where The Wind And The Sun
Could Strike Me, Because I Wanted To Get The Bronzed And Weather-Beaten
Look Of An Old Traveler.
Before the second day was half gone I
experienced a joy which filled me with the purest gratitude; for I saw
that the skin had begun to blister and peel off my face and neck.
I
wished that the boys and girls at home could see me now.
We reached Louisville in time - at least the neighborhood of it. We stuck
hard and fast on the rocks in the middle of the river, and lay there
four days. I was now beginning to feel a strong sense of being a part
of the boat's family, a sort of infant son to the captain and younger
brother to the officers. There is no estimating the pride I took in this
grandeur, or the affection that began to swell and grow in me for those
people. I could not know how the lordly steamboatman scorns that sort
of presumption in a mere landsman. I particularly longed to acquire the
least trifle of notice from the big stormy mate, and I was on the alert
for an opportunity to do him a service to that end. It came at last.
The riotous powwow of setting a spar was going on down on the
forecastle, and I went down there and stood around in the way - or mostly
skipping out of it - till the mate suddenly roared a general order for
somebody to bring him a capstan bar.
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