346

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

improper in his proposition. So I hastened to console him and lead
him on to forget his mishap in a conversational orgy about cattle and
butchery. We were lying at Acapulco; and, as we went on deck, it

happened   luckily   that the
crew were just beginning to
hoist some beeves aboard in
slings*    !Backus^Ys melancholy
vanished instantly, and with
it the memory of  his late
mistake.
* How only look at that!'	-a. shokt stout
cried he;* My goodness, Tri-
angle, what would they say to it in Okie f   Wouldn't their eyes bug
, td see *em handled like that?—wouldn't they, though? *
All the passengers were on deck to look—even the gamblers—