wi'
sogerin', an' thet sort o' thing. Ye've heerd talk o' theer great
bettelion. They'll be arter these eer treppings for certing, since they
hain't much chence o' gittin' soger fixings out theer. We-ell, what I
mean to do is to put the knepsacks off on 'em for some new improvement
o' pattern. I guess it air thet--I've heerd say so at the Fort--then
the Morming jineral, who air the prophet hisself, an' who's got berrls
o' dollars--he'll buy the knepsacks at any price. Now, de ye take,
Mister Tigg?"

"Troth do I. But dev ye think yez can fool thim so aizy?"

"Easy as eatin' punkin-pie. Jehosophet! I hain't been five year in the
tradin' line 'ithout lernin' the bizness, I recking."

"Be me faith! yez must have been raal cliver at it, whin ye sowld them
cypress-knees for bacon-hams to the Bawltemoreans. You remimber that
story yez towld us down in Mixico?"

"Yees; certingly I remember it--he, he, he! But I kim a better trick
then thet on the Orleens people 'bout five yeer ago--jest 'fore I jined
the Rangers."

"Fwhat was it, shure?"

"We--ell, ye see, I wan't allers es poor es I'm now. I hed a
pertnership in a bit o' a schooner, es used to trade 'tween Bosting an'
Orleens, an' we used to load her wi' all sorts o' notions, to sell to
the Orleens folk. Jehosophet an' pork-pies! they air fools, an' no
mistake--them Creole French. We ked a sold 'em wooden nutmegs, an'
brick-dust for Cayenne pepper, an' such like; an' I 'bout guess es how
we did spekoolate a leetle in thet line o' bizness. Wall, there kim a
time when they tuk a notion they ked make cheep _brogan_, as they call
'em, out o' allygator's leather, an' supply the hul nigger market wi'
'em. The neels were dear, an' so they tuk to usin' boot-pegs; but not
hevin' a manafactry o' the pegs down south, they hed to git 'em from the
no'th. Jest then, my pertner an' I thought o' makin' a spekoolashun on
the pegs; so we loaded our schooner wi' thet eer freight, chuck right up
to the hetches; an' then sot off from Bosting for Orleens. We thort
we'd make our derned fortune out thet eer trip."

"Shure yez did, didn't ye?"

"No-o-o; neer a bit o' 't. It keemd nigh breakin' us."

"Arrah, how?"

"We-ell! ye see, when we got roun' to Orleens, we learnt that the
boot-trade hed a'most stopped. The allygator leather didn't turn out
jest the thing for brogans; an' besides, it got sca'ce by reezun o' the
killin' o' them verming. In coorse, the pegs hed fel