And there was the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed what was the matter now. "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's side. You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top.

And there was the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed what was the matter now. “Boom!” I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat’s side. You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top.

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 8. Huck, who is hiding out on Jackson’s Island on the Mississippi, wakes up to the sound of cannon firing. He thinks they are trying to find his body in the river.

Mark Twain Quotes