On 03/31/95 CASKEY wrote to PAUL BERKOWITZ...
 C >
 C > We have a customer at our library who says there is a short story by
 C > Twain about a Storm on the Erie Canal. Can anyone help us with a
 C > title?
 C > Thanks much, in advance!! Mary Lou Caskey    [log in to unmask]

Mary,
   My Twain's World CD came up with a poem by Mark Twain that might be
your customer's target.  It's from _Roughing It_ Volume 2, Chapter 10.  I
attach the beginning stanzas:

The Aged Pilot Man

     On the Erie Canal, it was,
          All on a summer's day,
     I sailed forth with my parents
          Far away to Albany.

     From out the clouds at noon that day
          There came a dreadful storm,
     That piled the billows high about,
          And filled us with alarm.

     A man came rushing from a house,
          Saying, "Snub up ^1 your boat, I pray,
     Snub up your boat, snub up, alas,
          Snub up while yet you may."

[Footnote 1: The customary canal technicality for "tie up."]

Paul Berkowitz ([log in to unmask])