I was coming down from Baton Rouge one night in a stern-wheel boat.
The night before I had gone up and had been pretty lucky, so I
resolved to try and reach New Orleans in time for the next evening's
packet. McGawley, my partner at the time, was along; and as we
took a survey of the passengers, we noticed that most of them were
raftsmen who had just been paid off. They were a pretty tough lot,
but appeared to be well heeled, so I was not long in making up my
mind to see the color of their money. I managed to scrape an
acquaintance with a couple of them, and invited them to drink; then
I proposed a game of euchre, to which both agreed. We made it four-
handed, and played for the drinks, then the cigars, until finally
I resolved to feel one of them; so I ran him up a hand. He sat on
my left, and ordered me up. I gave him the laugh and said, "I'll
euchre you."
"I'll just bet you $20 you don't," he quickly replied.
"Here's $100 I do."