On the bank, a mile or so above the city, stood a canal-boat.

I say stood, because it was so firmly imbedded in the ground by the river-side, that it would have been almost as impossible to move it as to have turned the Sphinx around.

This boat we soon found was inhabited by an oyster-man and his family.

They had lived there for many years and were really doing quite well.

The boat was divided, inside, into rooms, and these were papered and painted and nicely furnished.