488 LIFE ON THJS MISSISSIPPI.
everybody knew this, still it made no difference to him j he liked to
seem to himself to be expecting a hundred thousand tons of saddles
by this boat, and so he went on all his life, enjoying being faithfully
on hand to receive and receipt for those saddles, in case by an?
miracle they should come. A malicious Quincy paper used always to
refer to this town, in derision as * Stavely's Landing/ Stavely was
one of my earliest admirations \ 1 envied him his rush of imagi-
nary business, and the display he was able to make of it, before
strangers, as he went flying down the street struggling with his
fluttering coat.
But there was a carpenter who was my chiefest hero. He was a
mighty liar, but I did not know that; I believed everything he said,
He was a romantic, sentimental, melodramatic fraud, and his bearing
impressed me with awe. I vividly remember the first time he took
me into his confidence. He was planing a board, and every now and
then he would pause and heave a deep sigh; and occasionally mutter
broken sentences—confused and not intelligible—but out of their
midst an ejaculation sometimes escaped which made me shiver and
did me good: one was, * O God. it is his blood !' I sat on the tool-
chest and humbly and shudderingly admired him ; for I judged he
'was full of crime. At last he said in a low voice—
* My little Mend, can you keep a secret ?'
I eagerly said I could.
* A dark and dreadful one 1'
I satisfied him on that point.
* Then I will tell you some passages in my history; for oh, I mast
relieve my bu; dened soul, or I shall die!'
He cautioned me once more to be ' as silent as the grave;1
then he told me he was a (red-handed murderer.' He put down his
plane, held his hands out before him, contemplated them sadly, and
said—
* Look—with these hands I have taken the livss of thirty human
beings!'
The effect which, this had upon me was an inspiration to him, and
he turned himself loose upon his subject with interest and energy.
He left generalising, and went into details,—began with his first
murder; described it, told what measures he had taken to avert