high that the cannon of the gunboats will have trouble in reaching them."

"Still, Mr. Pessimist," said Dick, "remember what the gunboats did at
Fort Henry. You'll find the same kind of men here."

"I wasn't trying to discourage you. I was merely telling the worst
first. We're going to win. We nearly always win here in the West,
but it seems to me the country is against us now. This doesn't look much
like the plains, Dick, with its big, deep rivers, its high bluffs along
the banks, and its miles and miles of swamp or wet lowlands. How wide
would you say the Mississippi is here?"

"Somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half."

"And they say it's two or three hundred feet deep. Look at the steamers,
boys. How many are there?"

"I count seven pyramids of smoke," said Warner, "four in one group and
three in another. All the pyramids are becoming a little faint as the
twilight is advancing. Dick, you call me a cold mathematical person,
but this vast river flowing in its deep channel, the dark bluffs up there,
and the vast forests would make me feel mighty lonely if you fellows were
not here. It's a long way to Vermont."

"Fifteen hundred or maybe two thousand miles," said Dick, "but look how
fast the dark is coming. I was wrong in saying it's coming. It just
drops down. The smoke of the steamers has melted into the night, and you
don't see them any more. The surface of the river has turned black as
ink, the bluffs of Grand Gulf have gone, and we've turned back three or
four hundred years."