THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white sand-bar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current on a slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge between them and civilisation.

Twain/Mississippi, 1946