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boys if he would not like to go with us as cook for twelve dollars a month. He agreed at once, and that night I stole him and his clothes and got him on board. But I was nicely paid for persuading him, for he was the worst boy I have ever seen, and he nearly plagued the life out of us.
When we got back to Pearlington Williams would not run the schooner himself any more, but got an Englishman named Bush to take charge of it. The first day he came on board he ordered us to warp the schooner up a bayou in the night. We were to load with wood, but the mosquitoes had begun to be bad, and stung us so badly we growled at him, but he only made work harder than ever, so we were not at all pleased with him.
At last he wanted us to work on Sunday, and that we flatly refused to do. He got mad and went to Williams and told him that we would have to quit, or he would. Williams came down to reason with us, but when we told him how it was, he let Bush go. He asked me, as I already knew the water pretty well, to take the schooner to New Orleans, and he would see about another skipper.
We made the	trip	very fast, and, when	we	came back, nothing was said about
another captain.	We	got a man to help us	and	I kept on running the schooner as
long as I was there. But only the last month were my wages raised to thirty dollars.
One day Bill and I went down the river with a barge which we should load with wood and tow to New Orleans. We had to go about four miles down the river, leave the barge, and walk through the woods. We started as soon as we had eaten breakfast, taking nothing with us but a small bottle of rum and a small pistol to shoot at the alligators.
We meant to get back in the evening, but	the current was	so	slow we	did
not get there till nearly sundown. We hurried	to get	back, as	we	did not	like
to go through the woods in the dark,	and,	besides	the	mosquitoes	were	so	bad	at
night they nearly ate us up.
We kept on going till almost	dark, and then we	knew we had	gone wrong.
Hearing a dog bark,	we went toward the	sound, and finally we did come to a
house. When we	got	in nobody was there	but	some French people. We could not
understand anything they said - only that we must go back the way we came.
We went back, but as soon as it got quite dark we lost the road, which was nothing but a trail, and now we	knew not what to	do	or where	to	go. We
stumbled on until we got out in a swamp. We were so tired we could hardly stand any more, and the mosquitoes had nearly ruined	us.	To give	us	a little
peace from them we tried to make	a fire by shooting	the	pistol.	We	tore our
shirts into strips, raveled them out and put them in the pistol. We shot it out into the grass.	But when we had to lie down and blow	it	into	fire the
mosquitoes stung us in the face so dreadfully	we had	to fight	them with	both
hands, and the fire went out. We tried several	times,	but fire	we	did not	get.
Then we took a strong draft of rum,	thinking	we	would	go	to	sleep	if	we	were
half drunk, but it did not help any.
Next morning at	daylight we tried to find the road, but	in	vain.	We were
getting more hungry,	and the hungrier we got the crosser	we	got,	and each
blamed the other for	having lost the way, and at last we were	about to	fight.
We saw now a drove of cattle, and thought we might shoot one of the calves with a pistol. After chasing them for an hour we had to give it up, and
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