ng.

"Pah! I hate people who are always wanting to be a shining light to
their fellow-citizens. There's a deal of pride, a deal of arrogance
and presumption in it. If a man wishes to pray, let him do so, and I
do it myself; but people don't want to be reminded of those things. I
tell you I have always found pride behind that sort of piety. The
Yankees think we are heathens, and that they are the elect who are to
enlighten us. Pshaw! I hate such humbug."

"Not so badly reasoned," observed Richards.

"However," continued Doughby, "I soon saw that, with one thing or
another, I was getting out of the old gentleman's good books. He
became more and more stiff and silent. That wouldn't have annoyed me
much; but one morning the captain came to me and said, in a sort of
apologising manner, that the ladies had desired him to beg me not to
pay so many visits to their cabin, particularly of a morning, when
some of them had not quite finished their toilet, but that I should
always ask leave first and have myself announced, as it is set down in
the regulations."

"'What!' says I, 'have myself announced when I go to see my own wife,
that is to be? What do the other ladies matter to me, whether they've
got on silk gowns or cotton ones? I only go to see Miss Lambton.'

"'Miss Lambton was present,' said the captain, 'when the ladies gave
me the commission; and she and Mr Lambton most particularly requested
me to have the regulations enforced.'

"'Miss Lambton!' said I; 'that's a lie now, captain. She never could
have done that.'

"'Mister Doughby,' said he, 'it is no lie; and if another than
yourself had said such a thing, I would have struck him down like a
mad dog. And I must beg of you to retract your words, and ascertain to
your own satisfaction that what I have said is a fact.'

"So I ran off and asked Miss Lambton and Mr Lambton, and they answered
me as dry as fagots, and said the captain had spoken the truth. I was
a'most raving mad when I heard this, as savage as a panther; and, to
console myself, I drank perhaps a trifle more than I should have done.
But what else can one do on a voyage up the Mississippi? Much as I
like him, old father Mississip, one gets awful sick of him after a
time, steaming along for days and weeks together, nothing to be heard
but clap-clap-clap, trap-trap-trap, or to be seen but the dull muddy
waters and the never-ending forest. Day and night, wood and water,
water and wood. It is wearisome wor