Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE

The old woman took note of me, understood, and
said what sounded like, "Lass' ma allez au premier"
-then she tramped briskly and confidently across
with her baskets, sending miniature avalanches of
sand and gravel down into the river with each step.
One of her feet plowed from under her, about midway, but she snatched it back and marched on, not
seeming to mind it. My pride urged me to move
along, and put me to shame. After a time the old
woman came back and coaxed me to try, and did at
last get me started in her wake and I got as far as
midway all right; but then to hearten me still more
and show me how easy and safe it was, she began to
prance and dance her way along, with her knuckles
in her hips, kicking a landslide loose with every skip.
The exhibition struck a cold panic through me and
made my brain swim. I leaned against the slope and
said I would stay there until the boat came and testified as to whether there were rocks under me or
not. For the third time in my life I was in that
kind of a fix-in a place where I could not go backward or forward, and mustn't stay'where I was. The
boat was a good while coming, but it seemed longer
than that. Where I was, the slope was like a roof;
where the slope ended the wall was perpendicular
thence to the water, and one could not see over and
tell what the state of things might be down there.
When the boat came along, the courier said there
was nothing down there but deep water-no rocks.
I did not mind the water; so my fears disappeared,
now, and I finished my march without discomfort.
I gave the old woman some money, which pleased
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