112 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



ment," turn round and come up to the banks with 

 grandeur, astonishing the squatter's children, and the 

 invalid hens that lived in the front yard. The captain 

 would pay up the bill for the wood, and off he would go 

 again as " big as all out doors," and a great deal more 

 natural. Thus we struggled on, until, sailing up a stream 

 with incessant labor, such as we went down when we 

 commenced our sketch, we emerged into the world of 

 water that flows in the Mississippi. Down the rapid 

 current we gracefully swept, very much to the astonish- 

 ment of the permanent inhabitants on its banks. 



Again for the " innumerable time," the " furnaces " 

 consumed the wood, and as it had to be replenished, we 

 ran alongside one of those immense wood-yards, so pecu- 

 liar to the Mississippi, where lay, in one continuous pile, 

 thousands of cords of wood. The captain of the " Em- 

 peror," as he stopped his boat before it, hollowed out 

 from his upper deck, in a voice of the loudest tone — 

 " Grot any wood here ? " 



Now the owner of the wood-yard, who was a very 

 rich man, and a very surly one, looked on the "pile," and 

 said " he thought it possible.'''' 



" Then," said the captain, " how do you sell it a 

 cord ? " 



The woodman eyed the boat and its crew; and eyed 

 the passengers, and then said, " he would not sell the 

 boat any wood, but the crew might come ashore and 

 get their hats full of chips for nothing.'''' 



