CARD-PLAYING IN THE CANE-BRAKE. 205 



leaves are green in summer and winter, and serve as 

 fodder for cattle. We stripped off the leaves, and 

 bound the reeds in bundles of 500, which make a good 

 armful, and rather a heavy one when green. We 

 sold them in Cincinnati for two and a half dollars a 

 bundle. 



The man on whom we had so summarily quartered 

 ourselves was very civil and obliging, and we were 

 soon good friends. To enliven the long evenings, he 

 luckily happened to have a pack of cards, and a relation 

 of his, who lived at some distance, used to come in 

 and play whist. I often wished that our friends at 

 home could have seen us, so as to have an idea of the 

 difference of a whist party in Germany and one near a 

 cane-brake in Tennessee : ours had at least the advan- 

 tage of simplicity. A very roughly hewn table was 

 placed in the middle of the room, the seats were chairs 

 or boxes. It happened that the mosquitoes were more 

 formidable here than I ever found them anywhere 

 else ; and as it would have been quite impossible to 

 sit still under the constant attacks of these tormentors, 

 an iron pot with glowing charcoal was placed under 

 the table ; a negro boy from time to time fed it 

 with rotten wood, in order to keep up a thick smoke, 

 which rose up all round the table, and was by no means 

 beneficial to the eyes. 



Instead of wax candles, a long stick was jammed 

 between two of the boards of the floor ; pork fat was 

 then cut in long strips, wound round with cotton rags, 

 tied to the stick at a moderate height, and lighted. 

 It burnt rather dim, but gave light enough to show 

 whether the colors were red or black, when the card 



