ch, an'
they able to stop us ef they want to? 'Pears to me thar oughtn't to be
anything but a string o' free countries all along the length o' this big
river."

"I think that is what is likely to happen," said Paul looking into the
future, as he did so often. "We'll always be pressing down, and we can't
help it."

"Anyhow," resumed Shif'less Sol, "I'm glad that we've left that thar place
o' Booly, or Bee-yu-ly, or whatever they call it. Funny these furrin'
people can't pronounce names like they spell. Now we Americans, an' the
English, who use our language, call words jest ez they are, but you never
know what a Frenchman or a Spaniard is goin' to make out o' 'em."

They made good progress throughout the day, and saw no sign of the
flotilla of Alvarez which they had feared might overtake them. They were
agreed that it would be wise for them to reach New Orleans first, and
hence they went boldly forward into the country that they regarded as that
of the enemy, confident of their fortune.

The river widened and narrowed frequently, but always it was very deep. It
was not beautiful here, but the vast current flowing between low shores
had a somber majesty all its own. Its effect upon the imagination of every
one of them was heightened by the knowledge that the stream had come an
immeasurable distance, from unknown regions, and that in the coming it had
gathered into itself innumerable other rivers, most of which also had come
from lands of mystery.

They stopped one morning in the mouth of a clear creek that flowed into
the Mississippi, and decided to spend the day in making repairs, a general
cleaning-up, and a search for fresh food. It was the universal opinion
that they would profit more by such a halt than by pushing on regardless
of everything.

It was a beautiful spot in which they lay. They had gone about a hundred
yards up the creek, and its waters here, about thirty feet across and five
or six feet deep, were perfectly transparent. But this silver stream the
moment it entered the Mississippi was lost in the great, brown current,
swallowed up in an instant by the giant river.

The banks of the creek were low and on either side brilliant wild flowers
grew to the very water's edge. Ferns, lilies, and other plants of deeper
hues, were massed in great beds that ran from the creek edges back to the
forest. Tall birds on immensely long and slender legs stood in the
shallower water and now and then as quick as a fl