JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS. 367 



came back again, when skipping nimbly across the room 

 he hastily set down a jug, and, blowing his scalded 

 fingers, exclaimed with much emphasis, " Guess I've 

 fixed you this time." I laughed, and so did he. On 

 looking at the trousers I had pulled off, I observed that 

 the buttons on the strap at the foot were gone, so again 

 I had recourse to the bell. A third youth, bigger than 

 the others, came, and having been made aware of my 

 desire to have buttons sewn on, he departed in possession 

 of the raiment, but very soon returned, and told me, 

 " Gentlemen and ladies down-stairs can't do it nohow; 

 but to oblige me he would take it out by-and-by, and 

 get it fixed elsewhere." " Upon my soul, you are oblig 

 ingly handy chaps here ; perhaps I had better do it my 

 self," I cried ; which seeming to interest him much, he 

 laughed, shook his head, and again vanished, materials 

 in hand. He had not been gone many minutes, when 

 he returned with a much more civil manner, begging 

 my pardon, and assuring me " that the housekeeper, 

 who had been out, was returned, and had been very 

 happy to sew on the buttons." 



On the voyage from Hanibal to St Louis I had seen 

 those huge rafts of timber, piloted by from eleven to 

 fourteen men, with six or eight rudders to them fore and 

 aft on either side, and again had to remark on the un 

 willing mixture of the waters at the junction of the 

 Missouri and the Mississippi. For miles, though flowing 

 together, the waters are as different from each other as 

 those of a stagnant pond from the ocean waves. The 

 voyage during the night, beneath a bright moon, had 

 been very beautiful, and the contrast of the silvery and 

 placid light in the sky with the angry glow and un 

 steady flare of two large fires, one on the prairies, and 



