four hundred and fifty dollars, a gold watch, a gold pin, and a silver
'bacco-box. Everything is useful in this world, even getting aground.
Now, I never repine at anything.

"The next day another steam-boat passed, and picked us up. It was one of
those light crafts which speculate upon misfortune; they hunt after
stranded boats, as a wolf after wounded deer--they take off the
passengers, and charge what they please. From Cincinnati to St. Louis
the fare was ten dollars, and the unconscious wreck-seeker of a captain
charged us twenty-five dollars each for the remainder of the trip--one
day's journey. However, I did not care.

"An Arkansas man, who had no more money, sold me, for fifteen dollars,
his wallet, a fine great-coat, two clean shirts, and a hat; from another
I purchased a pair of bran-new, Boston-made, elegant black breeches, so
that when I landed at St. Louis I cut a regular figure, went to
Planter's Hotel, and in the course of a week made a good round sum by
three lectures upon the vanities of the world and the sin of desponding.
Well, to cut matters short--by the bye, there must be something wrong
stirring in the prairie; look at our horses, how uneasy they seem to be.
Don't you hear anything?"

Our horses, indeed, were beginning to grow wild with excitement, and
thinking that their instinct had told them that wolves were near, I tied
them closer to where we bivouacked, and then applied my ears to the
ground, to try and catch any sound.

"I hear no noise," said I, "except the morning breeze passing through
the withered grass. Our horses have been smelling wolves, but the brutes
will not approach our fire."

The parson, who had a great faith in my "white Indian nature," resumed
the thread of his narrative:--

"To cut the matter short, I pass over my trip to New Orleans and
Galveston. Suffice it to say, that I was a gentleman preacher, with
plenty of money, and that the Texans, president, generals, and all,
condescended to eat my dinners, though they would not hear my sermons;
even the women looked softly upon me, for I had two trunks, linen in
plenty, and I had taken the precaution in Louisiana of getting rid of my
shin-plasters for hard specie. I could have married anybody, if I had
wished, from the president's old mother to the barmaid at the tavern. I
had money, and to me all was smiles and sunshine. One day I met General
Meyer; the impudent fellow came immediately to me, shook my hand in
quite a