will, he tied it up in his family for two generations. If this
latter be true, it proves that entails are not quite unknown even in the
Democratic Republic.]

[Footnote O: I have heard, since my return to England, that old Mr. Bell
is dead.]

CHAPTER X.

_River Scenes_.

I felt very anxious to make an excursion from St. Louis, and get a
little shooting, either to the north-west or down near Cairo, where
there are deer; but my companion was dying to get to New Orleans, and
strongly urged me not to delay, "fiddling after sport." I always looked
upon myself as a model of good-natured easiness, ever ready to sacrifice
self for a friend; but I have been told by some intimates, that such is
not my character, and some have even said, "You're a obstinate follow."
If they were wrong, I suffered enough for my easiness; if they were
right, I must have yielded the only time that I ought to have been firm;
at all events, I gave up my shooting expedition, which I had intended to
occupy the time with till a first-class boat started for New Orleans;
and, in an evil hour, I allowed myself to be inveigled on board the
"Western World." The steam was up, and we were soon bowling down the
leviathan artery of the North American continent. Why the said artery
should keep the name of the Mississippi, I cannot explain; for, not only
is the Missouri the larger river above the confluence, but the
Mississippi is a clear stream, with solid, and, in some instances,
granite-bound shores, and perfectly free from "snags;" whereas the
Missouri has muddy banks, and revels in snags, which, as many have sadly
experienced, is the case with the stream on which they are borne
throughout its whole length, thereby fully evincing its true parentage,
and painfully exhibiting its just right to be termed Missouri; but the
rights of men and women are difficult enough to settle, without entering
into the rights of rivers, although from them, as from men and women,
flow both good and evil. A truce to rights, then, especially in this
"Far West," where every one is obliged to maintain his own for himself.

This river is one of the places assigned as the scene of the
conversation between the philosopher and the boatman--a tale so old,
that it had probably died out before some of my younger readers were
born; I therefore insert it for their benefit exclusively.--A
philosopher, having arrived at a ferry, entered a boat, rowed by one of
those rare articles in