The flatboat ran altogether down-stream. Hence it led altogether away
from home and from the East. The Western man was relying upon himself,
cutting loose from traditions, asking help of no man; sacrificing,
perhaps, a little of sentiment, but doing so out of necessity, and
only because of the one great fact that the waters would not run back
uphill, would not carry him back to that East which was once his
home. So the homes and the graves in the West grew, and there arose a
civilization distinct and different from that which kept hold upon the
sea and upon the Old World.