CHAPTER XVI. In which Gumbo shows Skill with the Old English Weapon

Our young Virginian having won these sums of money from his cousin and
the chaplain, was in duty bound to give them a chance of recovering
their money, and I am afraid his mamma and other sound moralists would
scarcely approve of his way of life. He plays at cards a great deal too
much. Besides the daily whist or quadrille with the ladies, which set in
soon after dinner at three o'clock, and lasted until supper-time, there
occurred games involving the gain or loss of very considerable sums of
money, in which all the gentlemen, my lord included, took part. Since
their Sunday's conversation, his lordship was more free and confidential
with his kinsman than he had previously been, betted with him quite
affably, and engaged him at backgammon and piquet. Mr. William and the
pious chaplain liked a little hazard; though this diversion was enjoyed
on the sly, and unknown to the ladies of the house, who had exacted
repeated promises from cousin Will that he would not lead the Virginian
into mischief, and that he would himself keep out of it. So Will
promised as much as his aunt or his mother chose to demand from him,
gave them his word that he would never play--no, never; and when the
family retired to rest, Mr. Will would walk over with a dice-box and
a rum-bottle to cousin Harry's quarters, where he, and Hal, and his
reverence would sit and play until daylight.

When Harry gave to Lord Castlewood those flourishing descriptions of the
maternal estate in America, he had not wished to mislead his kinsman,
or to boast, or to tell falsehoods, for the lad was of a very honest and
truth-telling nature; but, in his life at home, it must be owned
that the young fellow had had acquaintance with all sorts of queer
company,--horse-jockeys, tavern loungers, gambling and sporting men,
of whom a great number were found in his native colony. A landed
aristocracy, with a population of negroes to work their fields, and
cultivate their tobacco and corn, had little other way of amusement
than in the hunting-field, or over the cards and the punch-bowl. The
hospitality of the province was unbounded: every man's house was his
neighbour's; and the idle gentlefolks rode from one mansion to another,
finding in each pretty much the same sport, welcome, and rough plenty.
The Virginian squire had often a barefooted valet, and a cobbled saddle;
but there was plenty of corn for the