for miles. Says I to
Mitch, "How do you like this?" Says he, "Wal, sir, I just feel as if I
could fly, I am that happy." There was lots of house boats on the shore,
where fishermen lived; there was nets stretched out on the sand; and
some wound up on reels, and there was just sloughs of row boats, and a
good many people movin' around, and some dogs barkin', and the sun was
just gettin' behind the woods on the other side of the river.

So then we began to ask when there was a steamboat to St. Louis. And a
man said, "To-night. Hey, Bill," he called to another feller, "ain't the
_City of Peoria_ goin' down to-night?" The feller called back "yes."
Mitch's eyes just glowed. He just stepped aside and I did and he said,
"Now luck is with us." Then I said, "Let's ask somebody else about the
boat, we might as well be sure." Just then a big boy came along, about
eighteen, so we asked him. He was carryin' some fish and was in a hurry,
and he said, "No boat for a week, kids," and went right on. That took
the spirit out of us. So we went to a house-boat and asked a woman who
was cookin' supper and she said she didn't know whether the St. Louis
boat was a day late or not; that sometimes it was a day late, and if it
was, it wouldn't be in till day after to-morrow. Just then her husband
came up and heard us, and he said, "'Pears to me the boat went down last
night. I can't ricollect. We don't pay much attention to the boats,
havin' our own business to watch. But," says the man, "if you go up to
the hotel, they have a time card up there; or I'll tell you, go over
there to the landing, and look on the door of the office, and see if
there ain't a time card tacked up." So we hurried over there, but some
one had torn off the card, and the office was closed. Then we went up to
the hotel.

We could see into the dinin' room and see the waitress girls carryin'
trays and the food smelt wonderful, but it was fifty cents to eat and we
couldn't afford it. Anyway we came up to ask about the boat. There was a
gray-haired little feller standin' behind the desk, and awful busy with
people comin' and goin', and we stood there tryin' to get in a word; but
just as one of us would say, "What time--" a man would step up and say:
"I'm checkin' out," or "Let me have 201 again," or somethin' like that.
Finally nobody was there and Mitch got it out, "When does the steamboat
go to St. Louis?"

The little feller didn't look at Mitch, he looked at me stiddy a l