er. All these boats were flat-bottomed and, as the saying
was, "could go anywhere if the ground was a little damp." A rise of a
very few inches of water was sufficient to float any one of them. And,
in the course of a half-hour, the "New Lucy," to the great joy of her
passengers, with one more hoist on her forward spars, was once more in
motion, and she too went gayly steaming down the river, her less
fortunate companions who were still aground cheering her as she glided
along the tortuous channel.

"Well, that was worth waiting some day or two to see," said Oscar,
drawing a long breath. "Just listen to that snorting calliope, playing
'Home, Sweet Home' as they go prancing down the Big Muddy. I shall
never forget her playing that 'Out of the Wilderness' as she tore out
of those shoals. It's a pretty good tune, after all, and the
steam-organ is not so bad now that you hear it at a distance."

CHAPTER XX.

STRANDED NEAR HOME.

It was after dark, on a Saturday evening, when the "New Lucy" landed
her passengers at the levee, St. Louis. They should have been in the
city several hours earlier, and they had expected to arrive by
daylight. The lads marvelled much at the sight of the muddy waters of
the Missouri running into the pure currents of the Mississippi, twenty
miles above St. Louis, the two streams joining but not mingling, the
yellow streak of the Big Muddy remaining separate and distinct from
the flow of the Mississippi for a long distance below the joining of
the two. They had also found new enjoyment in the sight of the great,
many-storied steamboats with which the view was now diversified as
they drew nearer the beautiful city which had so long been the object
of their hopes and longings. They could not help thinking, as they
looked at the crowded levee, solid buildings, and slender church
spires, that all this was a strange contrast to the lonely prairie and
wide, trackless spaces of their old home on the banks of the distant
Kansas stream. The Republican Fork seemed to them like a far-off
dream, it was so very distant to them now.

"Where are you young fellows going to stop in St. Louis?" asked the
pleasant-faced young man from Baltimore.

The lads had scarcely thought of that, and here was the city, the
strange city in which they knew nobody, in full sight. They exchanged
looks of dismay, Sandy's face wearing an odd look of amusement and
apprehension mixed. Charlie timidly asked what hotels were t