Life on the Mississippi • Paragraph 461
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

'That's where the benefit of the bank comes in. There is water enough in 103 _now_, yet there may not be by the time we get there; but the bank will keep us posted all along. You don't run close chutes on a falling river, up-stream, and there are precious few of them that you are allowed to run at all down-stream. There's a law of the United States against it. The river may be rising by the time we get to 103, and in that case we'll run it. We are drawing--how much?'