warm, tired travelers was to sit in the parlor on
stiff chairs while the whole family trooped in, cool and clean in fresh
toilets, to stare and question. We soon returned to the trees; however,
they kindly offered corn-meal pound-cake and beer, which were excellent.

Eight gunboats and one transport have passed us. Getting out of their
way has been troublesome. Our gentlemen's hands are badly blistered.

_Tuesday, July 15._--Sunday night about ten we reached the place where,
according to our map, Steele's Bayou comes nearest to the Mississippi,
and where the landing should be; but when we climbed the steep bank
there was no sign of habitation. Max walked off into the woods on a
search, and was gone so long we feared he had lost his way. He could
find no road. H. suggested shouting, and both began. At last a distant
halloo replied, and by cries the answerer was guided to us. A negro came
forward and said that was the right place, his master kept the landing,
and he would watch the boat for five dollars. He showed the road, and
said his master's house was one mile off and another house two miles. We
mistook, and went to the one two miles off. At one o'clock we reached
Mr. Fetler's, who was pleasant, and said we should have the best he had.
The bed into whose grateful softness I sank was piled with mattresses to
within two or three feet of the ceiling; and, with no step-ladder,
getting in and out was a problem. This morning we noticed the high-water
mark, four feet above the lower floor. Mrs. Fetler said they had lived
up-stairs several weeks.

X

FRIGHTS AND PERILS IN STEELE'S BAYOU

_Wednesday, July 16._ (_Under a tree on the bank of Steele's
Bayou._)--Early this morning our boat was taken out of the Mississippi
and put on Mr. Fetler's ox-cart. After breakfast we followed on foot.
The walk in the woods was so delightful that all were disappointed when
a silvery gleam through the trees showed the bayou sweeping along, full
to the banks, with dense forest trees almost meeting over it. The boat
was launched, calked, and reloaded, and we were off again. Toward noon
the sound of distant cannon began to echo around, probably from
Vicksburg again. About the same time we began to encounter rafts. To get
around them required us to push through brush so thick that we had to
lie down in the boat. The banks were steep and the land on each side a
bog. About one o'clock we reached this clear space with dry shelving
banks