Werner looked out upon the yellow waters, reflectively, for some time, and after a short pause, asked--
"Come with me," said Schwarz. "I am going to the southern part of Missouri; there I shall purchase a little improvement--that is to say, a place where one of the restless and ever westward-moving Americans has worked before, and where I need not be obliged to clear land for the first year's crop at all events. We'll seek for a little place for yourself somewhere in the neighbourhood, buy cattle as soon as we get there, so as to lose no time in rearing them, and then you may as well work for a few months, or even for a year, as may be agreeable to us both, upon my land; at the expiration of that time, I hope to have brought you so far that you may commence on your own account, and then the sooner you fetch home your bride the better."
"Oh, my dear Schwarz!--you paint the future much too brightly; I don't even hope to be so near to the fulfilment of my wishes."
"Well, we shall see," said Schwarz, laughing--"we shall see. But where has Helldorf got to? he hasn't shown himself the whole morning; we must be nearly there."
"He was sitting above, on the hurricane deck, beside the pilot," replied Werner. "Shall we go up?"
At this moment, the large ship-bell gave the signal for landing; the boat, too, approached the shore more and more, and there, in the shade of enormous cotton-wood trees and cypresses, stood an insignificant little log hut, almost concealed by immense piles of cordwood, and making its presence known merely by the blue smoke which arose from its clay-plashed chimney into the clear morning air.
The boat landed; across the planks, which were quickly shoved out, hurried away labourers, firemen, and deckhands, who were followed, although more slowly, urged on by rough language from the mate of the vessel, by the deck passengers, who, on board other boats, when they undertook to carry wood, merely had somewhat less to pay for their passage, but, on board the "Diana," were carried gratis, so that the task of wood-carrying should be speedily accomplished, and the journey not thereby delayed; it being important for that vessel to preserve her reputation as the fastest boat on the Mississippi.