78 WILD SPORTS IN THE FAU WEST. 



so, drawing myself up like a hedgehog, and planting 

 my shoulder against his side, and my feet against the 

 wall, before he could imagine what I was about, I sent 

 him with a sudden jerk into the middle of the room, 

 and then coolly told him the conditions on which I 

 would let him come into bed again. As the night was 

 too cold to admit of his sleeping on the floor, he agreed 

 to all I required, and remained quiet for the rest of the 

 night. 



I was up early the next morning, and heard that a 

 boat was about to try the passage. We started at nine 

 o'clock, and were six in the boat two at each oar, one 

 in the bows to shove away the ice, and one half dead 

 from fear. "With indescribable trouble we succeeded 

 in reaching the middle of the stream, where the ice had 

 become fixed round a small island. If we had attempted 

 to row round it we should have been carried down too 

 far below the town, so we had to get out, and drag the 

 boat over the rough blocks of ice, and launch her again 

 on the other side ; often we were jammed between im- 

 mense masses, so that I thought every moment the 

 boat must be crushed. About noon we gained the 

 opposite shore, and landed immediately below St. Louis. 

 The difference of time between (lermanv and St. Louis 

 is about seven hours, so that while families at home 

 we iv enjoying their Christmas fotivities around the 

 brilliantly lighted trees, I was toiling with tliilieulty 

 through the waves and large ma>ses of floating ice of 

 the Mississippi. The rhureh bells were ringing, as on 

 a bright clear dav, I entered this city of a foreign land. 

 I expected to find letters and inonev from New York, 

 but to my no small astonishment I was disappointed. 



