The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

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THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

helpless. Not expecting to be called on duty that day, they
had given themselves to a general carouse.
At three o'clock in the afternoon we were fairly started
on our way. It was necessary to lengthen the journey, in
order to go round a sand-bar, which the fearful gale of the
past forty-eight hours had made very prominent, and we
steamed up the river a mile. Before we had rounded the
bar, or made half the distance across, the terrible cry of
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" rang out over the boat. The wind
was still blowing with great fury. I had taken my position
near the door of the small cabin in which we were sheltered, and had kept it ajar for ventilation. Pushing-it open,
I saw, to my consternation, that the forward part of the
boat was in flames, and that we were steaming in the very
teeth of the wind. I looked out upon the river to measure
my chances for life, should I be obliged to jump overboard.
I saw that the current would bear me away from the boat
and not draw me under. I found that I could easily lift the
unpaneled door from its hinges, that it was neither large
nor heavy, and I believed that I could jump with it into the
water, retain my hold of it, and be borne to the shore by
the current. I remembered the local proverb, " Whoever is
drowned in the Missouri, is not only drowned, but buried."
The great quantity of sediment, which is carried in the
water of this river, soon fills the garments of the unfortunate who has fallen into the turbid stream, and weighs him
down like lead.
Without delay I unfastened my clothing, so that I could
shake it to the ground in an instant, and I unbuttoned my
heavy boots. "I do not believe I shall be drowned, if I
have to jump overboard," was my mental comment. All this
planning was the work of an instant. I felt no fear, nor
was I aware that I was making an effort to maintain my