unciation that few thought him disinterested.

* * * * *

It was Master Simp who heard a bold step on the stairs that night, and a
resolute knock upon his own door.

"Arrest for debt!" cried Mr. Simp, falling tearfully upon his bed; "I
have expected the summons all day."

"The next man may come upon that errand," answered the ringing voice of
Andy Plade. "Freckle sleeps in Clichy to-night; Risque cannot be found;
the rest are as badly off; I have news for you."

"I am the man to be mocked," pleaded Simp; "but you must laugh at your
own joke; I am too wretched to help you."

"The Yankees have opened the Mississippi River; Louisiana is subjugated,
and communication re-established with your neighborhood; you can go
home."

"What fraction of the way will this carry me?" said the other, holding
up a five-franc piece. "My home is farther than the stars from me."

"It is a little sum," urged Mr. Plade; "one hundred dollars should pay
the whole passage."

Mr. Simp, in response, mimicked a man shovelling gold pieces, but was
too weak to prolong the pleasantry, and sat down on his empty trunk and
wept, as Plade thought, like a calf.

"Your case seems indeed hopeless," said the elder. "Suppose I should
borrow five hundred dollars on your credit, would you give me two
hundred for my trouble?"

Mr. Simp said, bitterly, that he would give four hundred and ninety-five
dollars for five; but Plade pressed for a direct answer to his original
proffer, and Simp cried "Yes," with an oath.

"Then listen to me! there is no reason to doubt that your neighbors have
made full crops for two years--cotton, sugar, tobacco. All this remains
at home unsold and unshipped--yours with the rest. Take the oath of
allegiance to the Yankee Government before its _charge des affaires_ in
Paris. That will save your crops from confiscation, and be your passport
to return. Then write to your former banker here, promising to consign
your cotton to him, if he will advance five hundred dollars to take you
to Louisiana. He knows you received of old ten thousand dollars per
annum. He will risk so small a sum for a thing so plausible and
profitable."

"I don't know what you have been saying," muttered Simp. "I cannot
comprehend a scheme so intricate; you bewilder me! What is a
consignment? How am I, bigad! to make that clear in a letter? Perhaps my
speech in the case of Rutledge _vs._ Pinckney might come in well at this