Rafting Down the Neckar
馬克·吐溫 / Mark Twain
When the landlord learned that I and my agents were artists， our party rose perceptibly in his esteem； we rose still higher when he learned that we were making a pedestrian tour of Europe.
He told us all about the Heidelberg road， and which were the best places to avoid and which the best ones to tarry at； he charged me less than cost for the things I broke in the night； he put up a f？ine luncheon for us and added to it a quantity of great light-green plums， the pleasantest fruit in Germany； he was so anxious to do us honor that he would not allow us to walk out of Heilbronn， but called up Gotz Von Berlichingen’s horse and cab and made us ride.
I made a sketch of the turnout. It is not a Work. It is only what artists call a “study” — a thing to make a f？inished picture from. This sketch has several blemishes in it； for instance， the wagon is not traveling as fast as the horse is. This is wrong. Again， the person trying to get out of the way is too small. He is out of perspective， as we say. The two upper lines are not the horse’s back， they are the reins； there seems to be a wheel missing — this would be corrected in a f？inished work， of course. That thing f？lying out behind is not a f？lag， it is a curtain. That other thing up there is the sun， but I didn’t get enough distance on it. I do not remember， now， what that thing is that is in front of the man who is running， but I think it is a haystack or a woman. This study was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1879， but did not take any medal； they do not give medals for studies.
We discharged the carriage at the bridge. The river was full of logs — long， slender， barkless pine logs — and we leaned on the rails of the bridge， and watched the men put them together into rafts. These rafts were of a shape and construction to suit the crookedness and extreme narrowness of the Neckar. They were from f？ifty to one hundred yards long， and they gradually tapered from a nine-log breadth at their sterns， to a three-log breadth at their bow-ends. The main part of the steering is done at the bow， with a pole； the three-log breadth there furnishes room for only the steersman， for these little logs are not larger around that an average young lady’s waist. The connections of the several sections of the raft are slack and pliant， so that the raft may be readily bent into any sort of curve required by the shape of the river.