CHAPTER 51 Reminiscences.
WE left for St.Louis in the 'City of Baton Rouge,' on a delightfully hot day, but with the main purpose of my visit but lamely accomplished.
I had hoped to hunt up and talk with a hundred steamboatmen, but got so pleasantly involved in the social life of the town that I got nothing more than mere five-minute talks with a couple of dozen of the craft.
I was on the bench of the pilot-house when we backed out and 'straightened up' for the start--the boat pausing for a 'good ready,' in the old-fashioned way, and the black smoke piling out of the chimneys equally in the old-fashioned way.

Then we began to gather momentum, and presently were fairly under way and booming along.

It was all as natural and familiar--and so were the shoreward sights--as if there had been no break in my river life.

There was a 'cub,' and I judged that he would take the wheel now; and he did.

Captain Bixby stepped into the pilot- house.