f they had been wild turkeys instead of human beings.
In a region to which the vengeful arm of the law does not reach, we did
not feel ourselves called upon or entitled to set ourselves up as
judges, and we let the man go.

These trappers occasionally, and at long intervals, return for a few
days or weeks to the haunts of civilization; and this occurs when they
have collected a sufficient quantity of beaver skins. They then fell a
hollow tree that stands on the shore of some navigable stream, make it
water-tight, launch it, load it with their merchandise and their few
necessaries, and float and row for thousands of miles down the Missouri,
Arkansas, or Red River, to St Louis, Natchitoches, or Alexandria. They
may be seen roaming and staring about the streets of these towns, clad
in their coats of skins, and astonishing strangers by their wild and
primitive appearance.

* * * * *

I was sitting on a sofa in a corner of the ladies' cabin, with Louise by
my side, and talking over with her these and other recollections of more
or less interest. The tea hour was long past, and the cabins were
lighted up. Suddenly we were interrupted in our conversation by a loud
noise overhead.

"A nigger killed!" sang out somebody upon deck.

"A nigger killed!" repeated two, ten, twenty, and at length a hundred
voices; and thereupon there was a running and trampling, and hurrying
and scurrying, an agitation in our big floating inn as if the boilers
were on the brink of bursting, and giving us a passage into eternity in
the midst of their scalding contents. Louise started up, and dragging me
with her, hurried breathless through the two saloons, to the stairs
leading upon deck.

"Who is killed? Where is the poor negro?"

The answer I got was a horse-laugh from a score of backwoodsmen.

"Much noise about nothing, dear Louise."

And we were on the point of descending the stairs again, when we were
detained, and our attention riveted, by the picturesque appearance of
the deck--I should rather say of the persons grouped upon it--seen in
the red, flickering, and uncertain light of sundry lamps, lanterns, and
torches. Truly, the night-piece was not bad. In the centre of the
steamer's deck, at an equal distance from stem and stern, stood a knot
of fellows of such varied and characteristic appearance as might be
sought for in vain in any other country than ours. It seemed as if all
the western states and terr