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| | Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. "Old Times on the Mississippi" (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-29) |
 | | The big mate was at the wheel, and he had the old tub pointed at a star and was holding her straight up the middle of the river. |
 | | B-- handled the engine bells, and in due time the boat's nose came to the land, a torch glowed from the forecastle, a man skipped ashore, a darky's voice on the bank said. |
 | | The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book--a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. |
| docsouth.unc.edu /twainold/twain.html (15775 words) |
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