hich seemed better suited for our purpose.
Here the business continued to grow until it reached proportions of
which we had little idea when we began it.

* * * * *

MEETING RELATIVES OF MY OLD MASTER.

One day while I was at the Plankinton I happened to be coming through
the hall, when whom should I meet but Col. Hunting, son-in-law of old
Master Jack McGee, of Mississippi. We came face to face, and I knew him
at once, but he only partially recognized me. He said: "I know your
face, but can not recall your name." I said: "Don't you know Louis
McGee?" He then remembered me at once. "Why," said he, "my wife, my
brother and all his family are here. There is a party of us on a
pleasure trip through the north." I soon learned that they had visited
at Waukesha springs, and had been at the hotel only a few hours, waiting
for the boat for Grand Haven. I hastened to bring my wife to see them
and got back with her just in time. They were already in the 'bus, but
waited for us. We very cordially shook hands with them. They asked me
why I had come so far north, and I replied that we kept traveling until
we found a place where we could make a good living. They wished us
success and the 'bus rolled away.

* * * * *

FINDING MY BROTHER WILLIAM.

While I was at the Plankinton House many of the traveling men seemingly
liked to talk with me when they came to the coat room to check their
things. I remember one day when conversing with one of these gentlemen,
he asked, all of a sudden: "Say, Hughes, have you a brother?" I
answered: "Yes, I had two, but I think they are dead. I was sold from
them when a mere lad." "Well," said he, "if you have a brother he is in
Cleveland. There is a fellow there who is chief cook at the Forest City
Hotel who looks just like you." I grew eager at these words, and put the
same question to him that I did to the man on the steamer when I was
sailing: "Has he one fore-finger cut off?" He laughed and answered:
"Well, I don't know, Hughes, about that; but I do know this: His name
is Billy and he resembles you very much. I'll tell you what I'll do,
when I go back to Cleveland on my next trip I'll look and see if that
fore-finger is off." Now that the second person had called my attention
to the fact that there was a man in Cleveland who looked very much like
me, I became deeply interested--in fact, I was so excited I could hardly
do my work. I a