So, whether you have got anything
aboard or not, stick to the rule and moor her a bit off the wharf. It's
only the trouble of dropping the grapnel over on the outside in addition
to the hawser ashore, and then there's never no trouble when you get
back and have to report as how you have lost some of the bales. It ain't
as how we carry up many things as would pay for taking; soft goods for
the stores up the river mostly goes by steamer, but them as ain't
hurried, and likes to keep their dollars in their pockets, has their
goods up by flats. I have got ten hogsheads of sugar, twenty-four crates
of hardware, some barrels of molasses, and forty casks of spirits on
board, eighty kegs of nails and a ton or two of rice and flour. We
reckon to go up light, and I don't care to have the flat more nor
half-full, for when the river's low and the wind light the less we have
on board the better. Now Pete, let's have tea as soon as may be."

By this time they had entered the cabin at the stern of the boat. It was
only about five feet high, but was large and roomy, and Frank saw with
pleasure that it was neat and clean, and was an abode infinitely
preferable to the forecastle of the _Mississippi_.

"Now, lad, that's your side, and this is mine; that's your bunk. I am
given to tidy ways, having all my life lived in small places, and I hope
as you will fall into my ways; I keeps the cabin tidy myself, and Pete
never comes aft here except to bring the food and take it away again; I
can't a-bear niggers messing about a place. Victuals of all sorts is
provided. You can do as you like about liquor. I keeps a keg of rum on
board, and I likes my glass at night; if you likes to join me at that
you can pay for half the keg, it has not been broached yet. If you want
to drink more nor two glasses a night, ye had best get in yer own stock;
if ye don't want to touch it at all, just leave it."

Frank said he liked a glass of grog at night, and should be glad to join
in the cask, and that he would do his best to keep his side of the cabin
as tidy as the other. In a few minutes the negro brought in the meal,
which consisted of a steak fried with onions, followed by a large bowl
of oatmeal, with a jug of molasses, and the whole was washed down with
tea.

"The stream does not seem to run very rapidly," Frank said, as he and
his companion, having lit their pipes, sat down on the deck above.

"It varies," Hiram replied; "sometimes it's sluggish, as yo