Chapter XIV: A Surly Skipper

The grand bear "battue" came off, and I participated in the sport. I enjoyed it all the more that Nat Bradley was not one of the hunters. Had he been so, I might have been mistaken for a bear, and got a bullet through my body. But he was not upon the ground, and I was saved from such apprehensions.

For a time I saw nothing more of him, as he did not come near the house. There were letters, moreover, received by my host, which I fancied were from him. I thought so from having caught sight of the messenger who carried them. He was the negro who had brought back the horse.

After reading them, my host appeared suddenly affected with low spirits. I could guess the nature of the correspondence. No doubt it related to the gambling debt of which the creditor was now spitefully claiming payment. I was happy in thinking it was no worse. For myself I was no longer unhappy, except in the thought of parting from that pleasant companionship to which chance had introduced me.

A change had come over my sentiments. So far from seeking an excuse for hurrying away, I was now thinking of one by which I might gracefully prolong my stay. A somewhat singular one suggested itself. I became seized with the fancy to make a voyage upon a flat-boat! In this way I could glide down to New Orleans, leaving my horse to be sent by steamer!

In truth I _had_ such a fancy; though I confess I might not have gone so far as to attempt indulging it, but for the sake of the little stratagem that had suggested itself. I knew that the cotton-boat was coming down from Tennessee, and was to call at the plantation. It was to bring barrels of apples, sacks of walnuts, and other etceteras that do not thrive in the semi-tropical lowlands of the Mississippi. Moreover it was to take thence some packages of skins--the spoils of bucks, bears and panthers, which the hunting planter was in the habit of sending annually to New Orleans.

A week or two might elapse before the flat could be expected; and if I insisted on carrying out my caprice I could take passage upon that.

Such was my scheme.

It succeeded, and I found a plea for prolonging that intercourse, too pleasant to be easily interrupted.

* * * * *

Another week elapsed--it seemed only a day--and the Tennessee flat was reported at the landing. I could have wished it upon a snag, five hundred miles up-stream.

There was no help for it. The time had come for taking departure.

* * * * *

The peltries of the hunting planter were sent aboard, along with my own traps--these consisting of a spare suit of clothes, my chase trophies collected during my stay, and a stock of comestibles to serve me during a three-days' river voyage.

Bidding an adieu to Miss Woodley, which was not designed to be the last, I walked toward the landing, my host going along with me.

On reaching the river-bank, we found the crew of the flat engaged in getting the peltries aboard. I was a little surprised, and more than a little chagrined, to discover that the captain of the craft was no other than Mr. Black, her builder, whose uncivil behavior in Tennessee had caused mean unpleasant reminiscence. Stinger, too, was there acting as his mate, the hands, four in number, being negroes from Squire Woodley's plantation.

The discovery caused me to repent of my design--a voyage of three hundred miles in such company did not promise much pleasure, and I regretted my rashness in having proposed it.

It was too late, however, to recede, though I was not long in discovering that the captain of the craft would have been delighted by my doing so.

Every thing had been got aboard, the packages of skins, with the large case containing the souvenirs of my hunting achievements; but my personal luggage and the provision-hamper still rested on the shore, presided over by the plantation darky who had conveyed them to the landing.

The crew of the flat appeared to take no notice of these last, but were standing as if ready to draw in the plank.

"Mr. Black--I believe that is your name?" said my host, addressing himself to the _ci-devant_ boat-builder--"I've brought you a passenger. I hope you'll contrive to make him comfortable on the voyage."

"A passenger!" exclaimed the man, pretending surprise, for the negroes must have told him I was coming. "There ar'n't room for a passenger, Mr. Woodley."

"Oh, nonsense! You must _make_ room, somehow or other."

"The bit o' caboose we hev air arredy crowded. Thar's me and Mr. Stinger in't, and thar's hardly room among the bales for the niggers to streetch themselves."

"You can roll two or three of the bales out upon the roof. You haven't far to take them now. By spreading a bit of tarpaulin over them, they'll get no harm."

"We hain't got no tarpaulin--neery a rag."

"Have some of my skins then; they will do admirably."

This proposal placed the captain of the flat in a dilemma. It was evident he did not wish me to proceed in his company, while at the same time he was at a loss for some reasonable objection that he might urge against my going.

What was causing his reluctance? I could guess. Neither could the planter, who, at first surprised, soon became indignant.

"Come! Mr. Black," he said, "this boat is my father's property, and therefore in some sense mine. My friend has expressed a wish to go down upon it, and I have given him a promise he shall; I must therefore insist upon your making the arrangement I propose, and taking him. Set your men to work and roll two or three cotton-bales out upon the roof."

To this Mr. Black replied that the cotton would get spoiled, and that he'd be in trouble with the broker to whom it was consigned.

"I'll be answerable for that," was the response of the young planter.

Since I had been his guest, I had not seen Henry Woodley in such a temper. He seemed to think that his character as a host was at stake, and felt the indignity of Black's behavior.

As his blood was up, I could see it would be of no use, my proposing to stay behind. Nor, indeed, had I any intention of doing so. Uninviting as was the prospect of making a three hundred miles' voyage in such surly companionship, I was now all the more determined upon it. I had originally committed myself to it as a subterfuge for prolonging my stay at the plantation, and although here was now an additional excuse, I could not creditably make use of it. To trudge back with my traps, and tell Miss Woodley the reason why, would be a humiliation I was not prepared to undergo. Sooner than do that, I would have consented to sleep _sub Jove_ on the roof of the flat, with only my cloak to couch and cover me.

I was quite as indignant at the interruption as my friend--perhaps more determined that it should not stay me; and had the captain of the flat-boat held out any longer, he would have heard a little bit of my mind.

As it was, he reluctantly yielded to the remonstrances already made to him, and consented to receive me as a passenger.

It was now discovered that there would be sleeping-room enough, without disturbing the cotton-bales; and my traps were taken aboard and carried into the "cabin."

An apology for what had happened on the part of the young planter--a promise on my part to revisit him in the spring--a hearty hand-shake between us, and I was afloat upon the "Father of Waters," passenger in a "flat."