IS6 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



then, with a population composed of bears, walruses, Indians, and other animals'f 

 and how the iceberg. got adrift at last, and left all his paying subscribers ;behind, 

 and as soon as the commonwealth floated out of the jurisdiction of Russia the 

 people rose and threw off their aHegiance and ran up the English flag, calculating 

 to hook on and become an English colony as they drifted along down the British 

 Possessions; but a land breeze and, a crooked current carried them by, and they 

 ran up the Stars and Stripes and steered for California, missed the connection 

 again and swore allegiance to Mexico, but it wasn't any use ; the anchors came 

 home every tiiiie, and away they went with the north-east trades drifting off 

 side-ways toward the Sandwich Islands, whereupon they ran up the Cannibal flag 

 and had a grand human barbecue in honor of it, in which it was noticed that the 

 better a man liked a friend the better he enjoyed him; and as soon as they got fairly 

 within the tropics the weather got so fearfully hot that the iceberg began to meltj 

 and it got so sloppy under foot that it was almost impossible for ladies to get about 

 at all; and at last, just as they came in sight of the islands, the melancholy remnant 

 of the once majestic iceberg canted first to one side and then to the other, and 

 then plunged under for ever, carrying the national archives along with it — and not 

 only the archives and the populace, but some eligible town lots which had increased 

 in value as fast as they diminished in size in the tropics, and which Riley could 

 have sold at thirty cents a pound and made himself rich if he could have kept the 

 province afloat ten hours longer and got her into port. 



Riley is very methodical, untiringly accommodating, never forgets anything that 

 is to be attended to, is a good son, a staunch friend, and a permanent reliable 

 enemy. He will put himgelf to any amount of trouble to oblige a body, and there- 

 fore always has his hands full of things to be done for the helpless and the shiftless. 

 And he knows how to do nearly everything, too. He is a man whose native benev- 

 olence is a , well-sprjng that never goes dry. He stands always ready to help 

 whoever needs, help, as far as he is able — and not simply witli his money, for that 

 is a f^heap and common charity, but with hand and brain, and fatigue of limb and 

 sacrifice of time. This sort of mgn is rare. 



Riley has a ready wit, a quickness and aptness at selecting and applying quota- 

 tions, and a countenance tha,t, ig as solemn and. as blank as the back side of a 



