tions are famous, and a hand well
over the crops raised under such shrewd, experienced management as that
of Colonel Beverage is a stroke of policy. Therefore, as the bankers and
jewelers have been polite, so now the cotton-merchants are civil; but
the colonel is shy--an old bird and a game bird.

Shy, but not suspicious. He chooses his own time, and at an early day
walks into the business-house of Negocier & Duthem. They are pleased to
see the colonel in the way of business, as they have been in society,
and the pleasure is mutual. As he expounds his plans they are more and
more convinced that he is a plumy bird of much waste feather.

He has taken Rottenbottom and Millefleur, and is going pretty well
into cotton. He thinks he understands it: he ought to. Then he
has his own capital--an advantage, certainly. Some of his friends,
So-and-so--running over commercial and bankable names easily--have
suggested the usual co-operation with some reputable house, and an
extension, but he believes He will stay within limits. He has five
thousand dollars in cash he wishes to deposit with some good firm for
the year's supplies. He believes that will be sufficient, and he has
called to hear their terms. All this comes not at once, but here and
there in the business-conversation.

The reader will perceive one strong bait carelessly thrown out by the
auriferous or folliferous colonel--the five thousand dollars cash in
hand. The immediate use of that is a strong incentive to the house. They
covet the colonel's business: they think well of the proposed extension.
Cotton is sure to be up, and under practical, experienced cultivation
must yield a handsome fortune. The result is foreseen. The cotton-house
and the colonel enter into the usual agreement of such transactions. The
colonel leaves his five thousand dollars, and draws on that, and for as
much more as may be necessary in securing the crop.

The commercial reader North who has had no dealings South will smile at
the credulous merchant who entrusts his credit to such a full-blown,
thirsty tropical pitcher-plant as the colonel, who carries childish
extravagances in his very dress; but he will judge hastily. We have seen
this gaudy efflorescence pass over the curiously-wrought enameled
gold-work, opals, pearls and rubies, and adorn himself with solid
diamonds. The careful economist North puts his superfluous thousands in
government bonds, or gambles them away in Erie stocks, becaus