



Produced by David Widger





                    LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI

                        BY MARK TWAIN

                           Part 7.



Chapter 31  A Thumb-print and What Came of It

WE were approaching Napoleon, Arkansas.  So I began to think about my
errand there.  Time, noonday; and bright and sunny. This was bad--not
best, anyway; for mine was not (preferably) a noonday kind of errand.
The more I thought, the more that fact pushed itself upon me--now in one
form, now in another.  Finally, it took the form of a distinct question:
is it good common sense to do the errand in daytime, when, by a little
sacrifice of comfort and inclination, you can have night for it, and no
inquisitive eyes around.  This settled it. Plain question and plain
answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.

I got my friends