Wood taken in, the _Caravan_ again took her place in the middle of the
stream, paddling on as usual.
Day at length dawned. The brag-party broke up and settlements were
being made, during which operations the Captain's bragging propensities
were exercised in cracking up the speed of his boat, which, by his
reckoning, must have made at least sixty miles, and _would_ have made
many more if he could have procured good wood. It appears the two
passengers, in their first lesson, had incidentally lost one hundred
and twenty dollars. The Captain, as he rose to see about taking in some
_good_ wood, which he felt sure of obtaining now that he had got above
the level country, winked at his opponent, the pilot, with whom he had
been on very bad terms during the progress of the game, and said, in an
undertone, "Forty apiece for you and I and James" [the other pilot] "is
not bad for one night."
I had risen and went out with the Captain, to enjoy a view of the
bluffs. There was just fog enough to prevent the vision taking in more
than sixty yards--so I was disappointed in _my_ expectation. We were
nearing the shore for the purpose of looking for wood, the banks being
invisible from the middle of the river.
"There it is!" exclaimed the Captain; "stop her!" Ding--ding--ding!
went the big bell, and the Captain hailed:
"Hallo! the woodyard!"
"Hallo yourself!" answered a squeaking female voice, which came from a
woman, with a petticoat over her shoulders in place of a shawl.
"What's the price of wood?"
"I think you ought to know the price by this time," answered the old
lady in the petticoat; "it's three and a qua-a-rter! and now you know
it."
"Three and the d----l!" broke in the Captain. "What, have you raised on
_your_ wood, too? I'll give you _three_, and not a cent more."
"Well," replied the petticoat, "here comes the old man--_he'll_ talk to
you."
And, sure enough, out crept from the cottage the veritable faded hat,
copperas-colored pants, yellow countenance and two-weeks' beard we had
seen the night before, and the same voice we had heard regulating the
price of cotton-wood squeaked out the following sentence, accompanied
by the same leer of the same yellow countenance:
"Why, darn it all, Capting, there is but three or four cords left,
and _since it's you_, I don't care if I _do_ let you have it for
_three_--_as you're a good customer_!"
After a quick glance at the landmarks around, the Captain bolted, and
turned in to take some rest.
The fact became apparent--the reader will probably have discovered
it some time since--that _we had been wooding all night at the same
woodyard_!