"No, sir," the man said emphatically, "not for Hiram Little. I have been on board a flat all my days, and am not going to be hurried along in one of them puffing things. They have their uses, I am ready enough to allow, when the current is swift and the wind light; I am glad enough of a cast now and then, but to be always in a bustle and flurry is more than I could stand. Come along, youngster, with your sack; the boat is a quarter of a mile down." Taking up his portmanteau, Frank followed his conductor, who with long strides led the way along the wharf. Not a word was spoken till they reached the side of the boat. This was not a flat such as now are in general use, but a large boat some forty feet in length by fourteen wide, almost flat-bottomed, and capable of carrying a cargo of eight or ten tons of goods. In the stern was a little cabin some eight feet long for the captain and his mate. In front was a similar structure for the four negroes who formed the crew. She carried one mast, with a large lug-sail. She had four sweeps, but these were seldom used. When the wind was fair she ran before it, when it was foul the mast was lowered; if it fell calm when they were coming down the stream they drifted with it, if when going up, they either anchored or poled her along in the back waters close inshore, or made their way up the numerous channels where the stream flowed sluggishly, or tied on behind a tug if one happened to come along. Their principal work was to carry up supplies to the various plantations along the banks, to trade with the villages, and to bring down produce to New Orleans; for the stopping-places of the steamers were at wide distances apart, and the number of steamers themselves very small in comparison with those now afloat on the great river. At times they made longer journeys, going up as far as St. Louis; but in that case they were generally, as Frank afterwards learned, towed up the whole distance. "Hi! Pete, shove that plank ashore," Hiram shouted, and a negro at once showed his head above a scuttle in the bow of the boat, and then emerging, pushed a plank across the fifteen feet of water which intervened between the flat and the wharf.