ers. We bought pools and won $900.
Then we all tried to see how much wine we could take in, and I do
believe we got in $900 worth.

Canada Bill came over, and we spent a week with my friends. Then
we promised to meet them in New York City, and left for Poughkeepsie,
where we found Dutch Charlie, and we all took a Hudson river boat,
called the _Mary Powell_, for New York. On our way down we got
into a friendly game of euchre with an old gent, and we relieved
him of $700. After dinner I went up on the roof and saw my old
friend Captain Leathers, of the steamer _Natchez_, in the pilot-
house. He was insisting that his boat could beat the _Mary Powell_,
and when he saw me he said:

"I can prove it by that man coming up here now."

I was glad to see the old fellow so far from home, so I told the
pilot that the _Natchez_ was the fastest boat on the Mississippi;
and Captain Leathers went down to see the boys and the barkeeper.

Bill, Charlie, and I remained in New York for some time, and we
proved what old Bill said in Cleveland: "We three would make a
good, strong team."

The time came when I was compelled to leave the boys and go to
Chicago, and that was the last I saw of old Canada Bill and Dutch
Charlie until the following winter, when they both came down to
New Orleans, and them we again made the suckers think we three were
a good team.

STRATEGEM.

We went on board of Captain William Eads' boat at St. Charles, Mo.,
late one night, and found that all the state-rooms were taken and
we could get no bed. There was no one up about the cabin except
the officers of the boat, and as we never tried to win their money,
things looked a little blue for any business before morning, unless
some of the passengers could be got up. Young Bill Eads, a son of
the Captain, was one of the pilots on the boat. He was off watch
and at the bar drunk when we got on board. His father had married
a young wife that day, and was taking his wedding trip on that
boat. Young Bill was mad because his father had secured a young
step-mother for him, and was just raising "Ned" about it.

A short time after going on board, the boat made a landing, and
while we were tied up, the other pilot came down to the bar to see
Bill and also to get something. His name was John Consall--an old
friend of mine. I invited him and Bill to join me, and while we
were drinking I said:

"I wish we could get up a little excitement, so some of the suck