But mind you, it hasn't the same shape in the night that it has in the day-time.' 'How on earth am I ever going to learn it, then ?' 'How do you follow a hall at home in the dark.

Because you know the shape of it.

You can't see it.' 'Do you mean to say that I've got to know all the million trifling variations of shape in the banks of this interminable river as well as I know the shape of the front hall at home ?' 'On my honor, you've got to know them BETTER than any man ever did know the shapes of the halls in his own house.' 'I wish I was dead!' 'Now I don't want to discourage you, but--' 'Well, pile it on me; I might as well have it now as another time.' 'You see, this has got to be learned; there isn't any getting around it.

A clear starlight night throws such heavy shadows that if you didn't know the shape of a shore perfectly you would claw away from every bunch of timber, because you would take the black shadow of it for a solid cape; and you see you would be getting scared to death every fifteen minutes by the watch.

You would be fifty yards from shore all the time when you ought to be within fifty feet of it.