talk about. The young chap was asking all sorts of questions,
and I expect he's off; and I don't know as I blames him. He's the sort
of fellow to get on. He has plenty of grit; he's strong and active now,
and in a couple of years he will widen out and make a very big man. He's
had a first-rate edication--he don't talk about it, but one would be
blind not to see that--he will make his way wherever he goes, and I
don't blame him for striking out from the river. He likes the river,
too; but it ain't the place for making a fortin, unless you've got money
at your back, as you have, boss. But I don't know if he had money, and
could go into steamers and such-like, that he would stick to it.

"I don't know nowt of his history, but I think things must have gone
hard with him somehow, and he came out here for excitement more than for
making money. But there's nothing reckless about him; he don't drink,
and he don't gamble, and it says a lot for a young fellow in New Orleans
that he don't do one or the other. And he can fight, he can; there ain't
no doubt about that. Why, I saw him give the biggest kind of a thrashing
to the bully of a lumber camp, where we moored up alongside one night,
as ever you seed. The chap was big enough to eat him, but he didn't have
no kind of show. The young un just hit him where he liked, and in five
minutes that chap's face was a thing to see, and the lad never got so
much as a scratch. I wouldn't have thought as a man could have used his
hands like that if I hadn't been thar. I shall be right-down sorry to
lose him."

"I knew well-nigh when I took him on that he was not likely to stay,
Hiram; he said as much. He wanted to get to know something about the
ways of the country before he decided upon anything. If all young
fellows would do as he did, go to work for a few months, instead of
loafing about spending their money, and getting into bad ways, and among
bad fellows, it would be better for them; he has only drawn a few
dollars for his expenses--when he was down the last time--since he came
to work, so he has got a good sum due to him. I will have a talk with
him myself. There are a good many parties starting from here and taking
the Santa Fe route; but, taking them all in all, I don't think I should
recommend him to hang on to one of them."

"No, I should guess they would be a pretty hard lot who would go out
from here--gamblers, and horse-thieves, and runaway sailors, and Mexican
fighters--neit