ying a good deal of
the upper decoration. Zeb Leavenworth fell back into a corner with a
yell.

"Good Lord Almighty! Sam;" he said, "what do they mean by that?"

Clemens stepped to the wheel and brought the boat around. "I guess they
want us to wait a minute, Zeb," he said.

They were examined and passed. It was the last steamboat to make the
trip from New Orleans to St. Louis. Mark Twain's pilot-days were over.
He would have grieved had he known this fact.

"I loved the profession far better than any I have followed since," he
long afterward declared, "and I took a measureless pride in it."

The dreamy, easy, romantic existence suited him exactly. A sovereign and
an autocrat, the pilot's word was law; he wore his responsibilities as a
crown. As long as he lived Samuel Clemens would return to those old days
with fondness and affection, and with regret that they were no more.

XXX. THE SOLDIER

Clemens spent a few days in St. Louis (in retirement, for there was a
pressing war demand for Mississippi pilots), then went up to Hannibal to
visit old friends. They were glad enough to see him, and invited him to
join a company of gay military enthusiasts who were organizing to "help
Gov. 'Claib' Jackson repel the invader." A good many companies were
forming in and about Hannibal, and sometimes purposes were conflicting
and badly mixed. Some of the volunteers did not know for a time which
invader they intended to drive from Missouri soil, and more than one
company in the beginning was made up of young fellows whose chief
ambition was to have a lark regardless as to which cause they might
eventually espouse. --[The military organizations of Hannibal and
Palmyra, in 1861, were as follows: The Marion Artillery; the Silver
Grays; Palmyra Guards; the W. E. Dennis company, and one or two others.
Most of them were small private affairs, usually composed of about
half-and-half Union and Confederate men, who knew almost nothing of
the questions or conditions, and disbanded in a brief time, to
attach themselves to the regular service according as they developed
convictions. The general idea of these companies was a little
camping-out expedition and a good time. One such company one morning
received unexpected reinforcements. They saw the approach of the
recruits, and, remarking how well drilled the new arrivals seemed to be,
mistook them for the enemy and fled.]

Samuel Clemens had by this time decided, like Lee, that he wo