Rodden and Greene were playing, and Greene
was flushed with his luck and drinking more
than usual. Browne watched them till he was
tired, and turned in at about eleven o'clock.
Then Rodden and Greene drank more, or
stronger drinks than usual, and they played for
higher stakes. It was the old story—infatuation,
madness, and, of course, the loss of the
last dollar Greene had in the world. Then came
another insanity, worse than that of the drunkard
and the gambler—the insanity of despair.
Instead of going to his berth, he ascended to the
hurricane-deck. Then he took off his coat and
and wrote on a scrap of paper with a
pencil this just legible note:

" 'TO THE CAPTAIN OF THIS BOAT. Rodden has
robbed me when I was drunk, of three thousand
dollars, all I have in the world. I am going to
drown myself. Please thank Mr. Browne for
me, and tell him I am sorry I did not hear to
him.

                                   ' JOHN GREENE.'

"This paper he pinned to his vest, and then
quietly jumped into the river; but he was not
born to be drowned—not that time, any way.
There was a cry from the watch on deck, of a
man overboard. I sprang out of my state-room
with Muster. 'Save him, Muster!' said I.
The dorg didn't need another invitation, and he
caught him and held him up, just as he showed
you, until the steamer's boat picked them both
up, and brought them on board again. The
captain came down on Rodden, but Rodden drew
a bowie-knife and showed fight. The boat had
touched at Memphis, and before anything could
be done he broke away and was clear. His
mother, elegant and imperturbable as ever, had
their baggage taken ashore, and we were soon on
our way, like the river, and life, and all that sort
of thing, and I forgot all about the adventure.
One can't remember everything, as the man said
when he went to the woods to chop and forgot
his axe. I got through with my business at New
Orleens. It was a city then, full of wealth and
beauty, lying, a purple grape, in the sun, full of
luscious pulp and sweetness. Well, it is just
like a grape skin now, sucked and thrown under
foot to be trodden on; but we'll adjourn that
subject.

''On the fifth of May I left New Orleens to
return North. I went on board that palace of
a boat, Black Hawk, and almost the first person
I saw was Rodden's mother. There she was,
with the same stately presence, the same shaven
forehead, and false front, the same rich lace
and moire antique: to which were now added
flashing jewels; and there was the pretty little
woman, with her baby, now about a year old,
and both dressed in the same showy manner; and
presently I saw the hard-faced gambler, Rodden.
The young mother and her baby looked pale
and ill; the old mother and her hopeful looked
flushed and eager for prey. I paid so much
attention to those people, and thought so much
of what they had probably been doing all winter
in New Orleens, that I rather neglected the
other passengers; but the day after we started
I observed a particularly green-looking
individual, with light flaxen hair, an awkward
slouched hat, blue homespun pantaloons, and a
butternut-coloured coat, which seemed to me
both homespun and home made; he had old
yarn gloves on, which he never removed, except
to put on some old leather or kid ones. I
watched the gambler, for it had somehow
transpired that this gawky homespun individual
had been to New Orleens with a considerable
cargo of bacon and cheese. I thought of poor
Greene and his three thousand dollars. One day
I saw Rodden and the stranger—' Ike,' so he
called himself—together.

" ' No matter about my name, mister,' said
he, 'call me Ike; I'll answer to that, till the
cows come home. You can't come it over me
calling me mister. How do I know but you
are one of them fellows that plays poker, and
allus wins?'

" 'I never played but three games of poker
in my life,' said Rodden, 'but I'll play euchre
with you for the drinks.'

" 'No you don't. Look o' here, mister,' said
he, pulling down the lower eyelash, 'do you see
anything green there?'

" 'I see that you have cut your eye-teeth,'
said Rodden. 'I wouldn't undertake to cheat
you, if cheating was my trade, which, I am
happy to say, it is not.'

" 'You don't say! Good-lookin', but ye can't
come in. I shan't play for the drinks, nor for
nothin' else. I promised Susy, when I come
away, that I wouldn't tich a kaird, the hull time
I was off; an' no more I won't. You see, five
thousand dollars' worth of bacon and cheese
wouldn't be no shakes at all to one o' them
fellers that plays poker.'

" 'That's so,' said Rodden. 'You are wise.'

" 'Yes, an' that ain't the hull on't, for my
money's in the cap'n's safe, and, what's more,
it'll stay there till half an hour afore I land.'

" 'At——?' said Rodden, suggestively.

" 'At—yes, at; but where at is, you'll have to
find out, for I told Susy I'd keep dark as a
woodchuck's hole, and not talk to nobody mor'n
was railly necessary. As to you, I wouldn't
mind tilling you, for I took to you at wonst.
You are smart, but you can't keep a hotel, or
you wouldn't come at me about kairds. You
might have known I wouldn't play, by the looks
of me.'

"Rodden was persevering; the man in homespun
was firm. The young wife seemed more
ill, terrified, and miserable, every hour; the
old mother more hard, proud, and imperious.
She would take the baby, keep it from its
mother, and I believe pinch it, simply to torture
the poor woman. Rodden never interfered to
protect her. What a life that poor thing was
leading, and what, a fate for her child! One
evening I heard Rodden talking to the gawky
man about play.

" 'Look o' here now,' said the latter, 'ef you
ever say kairds to me agin, I'll pitch into ye. I