We have not before heard of Miss Castle, who appears to have been one of the girls who accompanied Jane Clemens on the trip which her son gave her to New Orleans, but we may guess that the other was his cousin and good comrade, Ella Creel.  One wishes that he might have left us a more extended account of that long-ago river journey, a fuller glimpse of a golden age that has vanished as completely as the days of Washington.

We may smile at the natural youthful desire to air his reading, and his art appreciation, and we may find his opinions not without interest.  We may even commend them—­in part.  Perhaps we no longer count the leaves on Church’s trees, but Goldsmith and Cervantes still deserve the place assigned them.

     He does not tell us what boat he was on at this time, but later in
     the year he was with Bixby again, on the Alonzo Child.  We get a bit
     of the pilot in port in his next.

To Orion Clemens, in Keokuk, Iowa: 

“Alonzo child,” N. Orleans, Sep. 28th 1860.  Dear brother,—­I just received yours and Mollies letter yesterday—­they had been here two weeks—­forwarded from St. Louis.  We got here yesterday—­will leave at noon to-day.  Of course I have had no time, in 24 hours, to do anything.  Therefore I’ll answer after we are under way again.  Yesterday, I had many things to do, but Bixby and I got with the pilots of two other boats and went off dissipating on a ten dollar dinner at a French restaurant breathe it not unto Ma!—­where we ate sheep-head, fish with mushrooms, shrimps and oysters—­birds—­coffee with brandy burnt in it, &c &c,—­ate, drank and smoked, from 2 p.m. until 5 o’clock, and then—­then the day was too far gone to do any thing.

Please find enclosed and acknowledge receipt of—­$20.00
                                   In haste
                                        Sam L. Clemens

It should be said, perhaps, that when he became pilot Jane Clemens had released her son from his pledge in the matter of cards and liquor.  This license did not upset him, however.  He cared very little for either of these dissipations.  His one great indulgence was tobacco, a matter upon which he was presently to receive some grave counsel.  He reports it in his next letter, a sufficiently interesting document.  The clairvoyant of this visit was Madame Caprell, famous in her day.  Clemens had been urged to consult her, and one idle afternoon concluded to make the experiment.  The letter reporting the matter to his brother is fragmentary, and is the last remaining to us of the piloting period.

         Fragment of a letter to Orion Clemens, in Keokuk, Iowa: