108 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



eccentric men that had a singular ambition to run a 

 boat where no one else could — he was fond of being a 

 great discoverer on a small scale. In one of his eccen- 

 tric humors, Captain Raft run the Emperor up Red 

 River, as the pilot observed, about " a feet," which in 

 the southwest, means several hundred miles. 



Among the passengers upon that occasion was old 

 Zeb Marston, a regular out-and-outer frontiersman, who 

 seemed to spend his whole life in settling out of the way- 

 places, and locating his family in sickly situations. Zeb 

 was the first man that " blazed " a tree in Eagle Town, 

 on the Mountain Fork, and he was the first man that ever 

 choked an alligator to death with his hands, on the Big 

 Cossitot. He knew every snag, sawyer, nook and corner 

 of the Sabine, the Upper Red River, and their tributa- 

 ries, and when "bar whar scace," he was wont to declare 

 war on the Cumanchos, and, for excitement, " used them 

 up terribly." 



But to our stor}- — Zeb moved on Red River, settled 

 in a low, swampy, terrible place, and he took it as a 

 great honor that the Emperor passed his cabin ; and, at 

 every trip the boat made, there was tumbled out at Zeb's 

 yard a barrel of new whiskey, (as regularly as she passed,) 

 for which was paid the full value in cord wood. 



Now, Captain Raft was a kind man, and felt disposed 

 to oblige every resident that lived on his route of travel ; 

 but it was unprofitable to get every week to Zeb's out- 

 of theway place, and as he landed the fifteenth bai^el, 



