but the Captain would not accept one
cent.

I went back to the room to see Bush, for I was sorry I had hit him,
although I thought he was guilty. I told him to get up and look
out for me, and I would open faro bank for the gamblers, which he
did. They all changed in except the big fellow with the broken
nose; he went to bed. The result was, we broke every one of them,
and then got off at Baton Rouge; they went to Memphis, where the
races commenced in a few days. Bush was with me for three years
after that; and many a night I have sat and dealt for a big game,
and in the morning would divide several hundred dollars with Bush,
who was in bed and asleep.

THE BIG CATFISH.

My old partner (Bush) and I had been up all night in New Orleans
playing faro, and we were several hundred dollars winners, and
thought we would walk down to the French market and get a cup of
coffee before we went to bed. We saw a catfish that would weigh
about 125 pounds; its mouth was so large that I could put my head
into it. We got stuck on the big cat, and while we were looking
at it an old man came up to me and said: "That is the largest
catfish I ever saw." Bush was a little way off from me just at
the time, and knowing I would have some fun (if not a bet) with
the old man, he kept out of the way. I said to the old gent: "You
are the worst judge of a fish I ever saw; that is not a cat, it is
a pike, and the largest one ever brought to this market." He looked
at me and then at the fish, and then said: "Look here, my boy,
where in the d---l were you raised?" I told him I was born and
raised in Indiana. "Well, I thought you were from some hoop-pole
State." We got to arguing about it; and I appeared to be mad, and
offered to bet him $100 that the fish was a pike. Says he, "Do
you mean it?" I pulled out a roll, threw down $100 and told him
to cover it. He lammed her up, and I said: "Who will we leave it
to?" We looked around and saw Bush, with a memorandum book in his
hand and a pen behind his ear, talking to a woman who sold vegetables,
and he was acting as if he was collector of the market. I said:
"May be that man with the book in his hand might know." The old
fellow called Bush, and said to him, "Do you belong about here?"
"Oh, yes; I have belonged about here for a good many years," says
Bush. "Well, sir, you are just the man we want to decide our bet,"
says the old gent. "Well, gentlemen, I am in somewhat of a hurry