"How 'bout wood—got enough?" the Captain called down to the engineer who stood on the lower deck.
"Plenty to get us to ole man Vick's plantation, and I'm a-countin' on bein' thar to-morrow mornin'."
"Good! Let's pull out and get ahead agin."
A little later the boat was pushing towards the middle stream, the shore dwindling on each side to a thin, black ribbon. The moon had risen well into the sky and was shedding its cold light over the glassy surface of the river; the deep puffs of the engines sent columns of black smoke far up into the clear heavens.
"Come over here, youngster," called the Captain from the forward deck, where he had settled himself into a chair, his feet elevated on the railing to the level of his head, the glow from his pipe gleaming full into his face. "Come over here and sit down. You ain't sleepy, yet, I reckon—are you?"
From where they sat the forward part of the lower deck was in full view. Two torch baskets, filled with blazing pine, brilliantly illuminated that part of the boat. On both sides were piles of meal and corn, sacks of salt meat and barrels of flour, and two bales of cotton on their way to New Orleans, and thence to Boston by sea—the first bales of that season.
In the centre, where the light fell strongest, was a group of negroes; some lying full length in the deep sleep of exhaustion, others gathered in small circles from which came the sound of rattling dice. The twanging of a banjo and the sound of many shuffling feet floated out softly on the silent river.
When the young man had taken his seat beside the Captain, the old fellow laid his hand on his shoulder, almost affectionately.
"If you're bent and determined on gettin' off at Natchez," he began between short puffs at his pipe, "I've a mind to give you some advice. Want to hear it?"
"Of course I do, Captain," he answered quickly. "But I don't want you to think I shall not succeed there. When a fellow is willing to work, and overflowing with energy and ambition, success is bound to come. I know it will come to me—I'm going to it. And if the fight is to be a difficult one, as you say," he added after a moment's hesitation, "perhaps it will make me all the stronger for the struggle. You are not going to discourage me, Captain, no matter how wild or savage you paint this country. I am going to stop here."