"I should like to know where the old rascal is," says Mrs. Snow, going
back to the suggestion that Mr. Belcher was supplying his family with
money.

"Well, I can tell ye," replies Jim. "I've been a keepin' it in for this
very meetin'."

"Oh Jim!" exclaim half a dozen voices, which means: "we are dying to
hear all about it."

"Well," says Jim, "there was a feller as come to my hotel a month ago,
and says he: 'Jim, did ye ever know what had become of old Belcher?'
'No,' says I, 'I only knowed he cut a big stick, an' slid.' 'Well,' says
he, 'I seen 'im a month ago, with whiskers enough on 'is ugly face to
set up a barberry-bush.' Says I, 'Where did ye seen 'im?' 'Where do ye
guess', says he?' 'Swoppin' a blind hoss', says I, 'fur a decent one,
an' gettin' boot.' 'No,' says he, 'guess agin.' 'Preachin' at a
camp-meetin',' says I, 'an' passin' round a hat arter it.' 'No,' says
he, 'I seen 'im jest where he belonged. He was tendin' a little bar, on
a S'n' Lor'nce steamboat. He was settin' on a big stool in the middle of
'is bottles, where he could reach 'em all without droppin' from his
roost, an' when his customers was out he was a peekin' into a little
lookin'-glass, as stood aside of 'im, an' a combin' out his baird.'
'That settles it,' says I, 'you've seen 'im, an no mistake.' 'Then,'
says he, 'I called 'im 'General,' an' he looked kind a skeered, an' says
'e to me, 'Mum's the word! Crooked Valley an' Air Line is played out,
an' I'm workin' up a corner in Salt River,'--laughin', an' offerin' to
treat.'

"I wonder how he came in such a place as that," says Mrs. Snow.

"That's the funniest part on't," responds Jim. "He found an old friend
on the boat, as was much of a gentleman,--an old friend as was dressed
within an inch of his life, an' sold the tickets."

"Phipps!" "Phipps!" shout half a dozen voices, and a boisterous laugh
goes around the group.

"Ye've guessed right the fust time," Jim continues, "an' the
gentlemanlest clerk, an' the poplarest man as ever writ names in a book,
an' made change on a counter, with no end o' rings an' hankercher-pins,
an' presents of silver mugs, an' rampin' resolootions of admirin'
passingers. An' there the two fellers be, a sailin' up an' down the
S'n.' Lor'nce, as happy as two clams in high water, workin' up corners
in their wages, an' playin' into one another's hands like a pair of
pickpockets; and what do ye think old Belcher said about Phipps?"

"What did he say?" comes