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

EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE
pany and willing and able helpers. I slept in the
inn; often in clean and satisfactory quarters, sometimes in the same room with the cows and the fleas.
I breakfasted on the lawn in the morning with cat
and dog again; then laid in a stock of grapes and
other fruits gathered fresh from the garden and some
bottles of red wine made on the premises, and at
eight or nine we went floating down the river again.
At noon we went ashore at a village, bought a
freshly caught fish or two, had them broiled, got
some bread and vegetables, and set sail again at once.
We always lunched on board as we floated along. I
spent my days reading books, making notes, smoking, and in other lazy and enchanting ways, and
had the delightfulest ten-day voyage I have ever
experienced.
It took us ten days to float to Arles. There the
current gave out and I closed the excursion and returned to Geneva by rail. It was twenty-eight miles
to Marseilles, and we should have been obliged to
row. That would not have been pleasure; it would
have meant work for the sailor, and I do not like
work even when another person does it.
I think it was about the eighth day that I discovered Napoleon. My notes cover four or five days;
there they stop; the charm of the trip had taken possession of me, and I had no energy left. It was
getting toward four in the afternoon-time to tie
up for the day. Down ahead on the right bank I
saw a compact jumble of yellowy-browny cubes
stacked together, some on top of the others, and no
visible cracks in the mass, and knew it for a village172