et and three inches tall,
he was long-legged, lantern-jawed and goggle-eyed. Bilious in his
constitution, he was melancholic in his temperament, had been crossed in
love and soured at twenty, betrayed and bankrupted at thirty, and at
forty had turned his back upon the world, forswearing all its
amusements but those of the table, which his poor digestion made more
painful than pleasurable, all of its ambitions but those of getting
money And all friendships but those of the captain, to whom he was
attached like a limpet to a rock.

Such were the leading characteristics of the two worthies who rose from
their deck-stools to meet the doctor as he rolled up the gangway.

"Howdy, doctor?" said the mate, in the peculiar drawling vernacular of
the poor whites of the south, extending a hand as cold and hard as an
anchor.

"Welcome, prince of quacks! For a man who has made so many others walk
the plank with poison drugs, you do it but poorly yourself," cried the
captain, merrily.

"You will d-d-draw your last breath with a joke, as a d-d-drunkard sips
his last drop with a sigh," responded the doctor.

"The captain was born with the corners of his mouth turned up like a
dead man's toes," drawled the lugubrious mate.

"Where is the judge?" asked the doctor, hitting the captain a hearty
slap on the back.

"He will be here a little later," the host replied.

The three boon companions seated themselves by the gunwale of the
vessel, basking in the mellow light of the moon and quaffing the liquor
which a negro brought them.

While they were drinking and recalling the many revels which they had
held together, an hour passed by, and at its close a form was seen
coming leisurely down the sloping bank of the river. It was the justice
of the peace, come to make merry with the husband of the woman he had
just betrayed. Upon that cynical countenance a close observer might have
noted even in the pale light of the moon an expression of sardonic
pleasure when he returned the hearty greetings with which his coming was
hailed.

"I am sorry to have kept you waiting," he said.

"We have all the b-b-better appetite," responded the doctor.

"If, as the old saw says, the time to eat is when the stomach rings the
bell, I am ready!" the captain piped, in his high-pitched voice.

"Diogenes being asked what time a man ought to eat, responded, 'The
rich, when he is hungry, and the poor, when he has food,'" said the
judge, whose mind threw up