404 
FORE ST AND, S TfUSAM® 
[MoV. 12, I964. 
had begun to raise a beard in order to cover his deformity. 
His forehead was fairly well shaped, but his eyes danced 
about in a fashion that indicated the criminal character; 
but he was a glib talker, and knew the river so well that 
there were a hundred hints in what he had to say by the 
time we reached Bill Scarlet's ferry across the Wolf. 
He said he knew the river, and was used to cabin boating, 
but the way he got into the ferry skiff should have been 
a caution to me. He came down off the sawdust-pile 
on board with an awkwardness that liked to have upset 
the craft, passing me with a rough, gliding motion. My 
suspicions were well aroused, of course, and I watched 
out for the move of a highwayman. Doubtless had he 
been a highwayman I would have been an easy victim, 
for the man had a score of chances to draw down on me. 
We went on board Mrs. Haney's boat, and Mrs. Haney 
got supper for us; a good, hearty meal it was, too. We 
ate, and afterward my visitor had numerous propositions 
to make. I told him frankly enough that I came down 
the river, and he wanted to go on down with me; upon 
which I told him I couldn't, for I was going over to the 
St. Francis ; whereupon, in a burst of enthusiasm, he said 
that that was just the kind of a trip he'd been wanting to 
make for a long while. I shut that off by saying I was 
going alone, but if he wanted to, he could meet me at 
the mouth of the St. Francis in three or four, perhaps 
five, weeks. He said he'd probably do it. 
"You see," he said, "it's just like this. My pardner is 
in New York, mixed up in a lawsuit. He told me he'd 
come to Memphis a month ago, and then we'd get a cabin 
boat and go down the river and have a time. We're both 
of us sports, and have been going together five or six 
years on the old river having a good time hunting. Too 
good a time, I might say, for we liked hunting too well, 
and that broke up our business, and we failed, resulting 
in this law business he's now at. You see, we had a 
bicycle business" (I was in bicycle knickerbockers) "up 
to St. Louis, and didn't attend to it, and had to go into 
bankruptcy proceedings, and things got into a bad mess, 
and we decided we'd just get out and take one of our 
little mind-resters on the river and forget dull care and 
have a good time like we've done before. 
"Now, if my pardner don't come I want to go down the 
river anyhow, and I can't wait here forever, for it takes 
monev to live," my visitor went on, "and if he does come 
he wants me to get somebody to go in with us on a cabin 
boat. We can get one down the river. Here's what he 
says :" 
Then he took three or four letters from his pocket. He 
had given me a name, but the envelopes were addressed 
to someone else, and instead of being postmarked New 
York, had a South Orange, N. J., stamp. I thought to 
myself that it takes only a good listener to make one of 
these fellows give himself away. According to him the 
letter said : "Now you find a man, if you can, and if he s 
game all right, let him come in, but make him cough up 
his share of the price of the boat, and then we'll know 
he means business." 
"Now, we'd like to have you," the man said, flapping 
his head till the hair that covered his bald top was disar- 
ranged, and glancing into my face forty times a mmute. 
Meantime, Mrs. Haney went over to Lotties and left 
us alone in her boat. She had over a hundred dollars of 
her son's savings on board, and had known me only four 
days, but in spite of her advice, trusted me so much as 
to tell about the money and where it was. It came nine 
o'clock, and the man started for home. I recalled a 
bunch of the busted-in-the-head yarns of the river, and 
kept my eye on the fellow. He kept ahead of me to the 
ferry, and as Scarlet was not there, I put him across 
He went up the dark brown sawdust-pile, silhouetted 
against the broad, yellowish reflection which a lighted 
city casts against its own bank of smoke. He had his 
shoulders humped up a little, and his hands in his 
trousers' pockets ; a moment later, when I turned from 
sending the skiff out into the current, he was nowhere in 
sight, the blank, dark face of the sweet-smelling damp 
sawed wood having swallowed him up. 
I went back to the landing on the island, tied the boat, 
and found another one loose ; how it came so I don't 
know, and watched it settled against the side of the 
wagon ferry safely, and then went up to the boat, with 
the mean feeling that I hadn't treated the man right, for 
I would have liked traveling in a cabin boat. 
I talked to Sam Cole when I got back about the fellow, 
and asked what he thought of a man who said thus and 
so, and looked so and so. "No good !" Sam said. 
In the morning when I got up — I was on Carlos' cata- 
maran — I happened to put my hand in my knickerbockers 
pocket, looking for my knife. I thought it was in my 
hip pocket, where I frequently carried it, the knife being 
a heavy hunting sort. I felt in the left front pocket, 
where I had several silver dollars. They were there. 1 
ran my hand into my left front pocket, and found my 
knife there, but my pocketbook, containing fourteen dol- 
lars, wasn't. It wasn't in my bedding, either; nor was it 
anywhere around. 
It dawned on me after a while that I had run into an- 
other good story, which was just my luck exactly. I 
laughed, felt silly, wondered, and went to thinking. At 
first it seemed that I had lost my St. Francis trip, and 
that hurt, and then I found I was in the way of some 
things to hear as regards some aggravating types of bad 
men, though not necessarily dangerous ones. But I had 
learned to "look a little out," and when I got some more 
money I shed the knickerbockers for corduroy trousers 
such as the rivermen wear. They are less comfortable, 
but a great deal less conspicuous when one must go up 
and down two-thirds the length of the street of a place 
like Memphis, which is such a promising city. I had an 
idea that came during the bit of a panic into which l had 
fallen on discovering my loss, and I took to thinking 
about statistics. I went to the library again, and took a 
look at the file of a local paper. I told Mr. Johnson what 
had happened, and he was sympathetic. He said one of 
the slickest men in Memphis had been taken in by a green 
farmer for quite a lot of money a couple of years ago. 
It was soothing to hear about the slick Memphis man 
being done by a game. I found the statistics interesting 
if not consoling. I hadn't been taken in by a new game — 
not by a long shot. If there is any one thing more 
familiar to readers of Memphis newspapers than the 
story of a stranger taken in by local confidence experts, 
the three months' file didn't show it. From two to five 
victims were recorded each week. Raymond S. Spears. 
How Did She Know It? 
Worcester, Mass., Nov. 4.— The other morning I stood 
on my lawn when a neighbor's cat walked by within ten 
feet of me, apparently without any fear. She changed 
her course slightly and was walking from me, when I 
discovered a half-eaten pear that some boy had thrown 
there, and stooped down to pick it up ? with the idea of 
throwing it at the cat, which I did, with my eye all the 
time on the cat. She did not turn her head in the least, 
but the moment I commenced to stoop she commenced to 
increase her pace, and by the time the pear was half-way 
to her, she was going with all the speed a cat possesses. 
A. B. F. Kinney. 
* * * The current number of Game Laws in Brief gives 
laws of all States and Provinces. Price 25 cents. 
The Happy Hunting: Gro«nd. 
In the Happy Hunting Ground, 
Just beyond the setting sun, 
Pleasures rarely to be found 
Fancy points out one by one; 
Charmed with magic view and sound 
Is the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Winds in silent zephyrs move ; 
Mild the twilight's golden gleam, 
Silence solemnly reproves 
With touches gently all unseen; 
Holds her sway in peace profound, 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Skies peep through the smoky hues; 
Sun with slanting, mellow rays 
Glisten in the frost and dews 
On leaf and blade, while each decays; 
Shedding beauty all around 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Towering peaks with hazy view, 
Stalk out o'er the mountain waste, 
Lifting still beyond the blue, 
Where distances seem all effaced; 
And dreamy ways and paths are wound 
Through the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Nooks and vales and deep ravines, 
Rocks and hills and wooded trails, 
Trackless wilds, slow mossy streams, 
Each a welcome never fails, 
For the eager traveler bound 
For the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Boundless wilderness to rove 
Not disturbed by stinted art, 
Gems and rarest gifts to prove 
Lying close to nature's heart; 
"All is mystery profound 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Soft the timid game shall tread, 
Through the marsh and barrens wide; 
Swift the whirr of wings shall spread 
And toward the thickets glide, 
Where the ferns and lichens brown 
Hide them. Happy Hunting Ground! 
There the feet, though numbed with toil, 
Yet shall haste with speed away; 
There the heart, though choked with moil, 
Shall rejoice from day to day; 
Join the chase with gun and hound 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Thorn and brier shall not trip, 
Hills be not too steep to climb, 
Feet though weary shall not slip, 
Darkness shall not stop the find; 
Joys be not by sorrows drowned 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Age shall lift his heavy hand, 
Loose the limbs and clear the eye; 
Time no more shall count his sands 
'Gainst the daily passerby; 
Jollity with joy is crowned 
In the Happy Hunting Ground. 
D. L. Creveling. 
A Pair of Pet Cheetahs. 
A short time after my first arrival in Durban, Natal, 
South Africa, I made the acquaintance of a -young 
colonist, who was clerking in an up-country store. He 
informed me that within comparatively a short distance 
of his place of business there was an old Boer woman 
who had in her possession a pair of young cheetahs which 
her sons had captured after shooting the mother and 
finding that she was giving milk. Whenever a Boer kills 
a female of the larger cat animals, he immediately tests 
her teats, in order to ascertain if she is giving milk. If 
such is the case, the vicinity is promptly searched, in 
order to capture the nurselings. Giving my newly-made 
acquaintance carte blanche to purchase the animals, he 
left with the promise, if possible, to fulfill my wishes. 
Some time elapsed before I received any communication 
from him, when my anxiety was relieved by the arrival of 
a letter, announcing the purchase of the animals, which 
would be forwarded by the first wagon leaving his neigh- 
borhood for Durban. A few weeks subsequent my solici- 
tude was relieved by the arrival of an ox team from the 
Orange Free State bearing a rough wooden box con- 
taining the animals. They were immediately shifted into 
a cage which had been specially prepared for them. _ 
Some little time elapsed before I succeeded m making 
friends with them, which delay I attributed to their hav- 
ing been accustomed to a female instead of a male at- 
tendant. Owing to their blunt, non-retractile claws, I did 
not fear being scratched, consequently had only to guard 
being bitten. By dint of a series of quiet, peaceful moves, 
I finally managed to pass my hands between the bars of 
the cage and fondle them without any indications of dis- 
pleasure. My next maneuver was to place collars on their 
necks, preparatory to taking them out of the cage, which 
was a wearisome job, and required my entire stock of 
patience to make it a success. Attaching a small, stout 
cord to their collars by means of a snap-hook, and then 
passing it through a ring secured to the end of a stout 
wooden rod, completed my preparations for their exit 
from confinement. I made my first essay with the male, 
as he seemed to be of . a quieter disposition than the 
female, which was disposed to be nervous and flighty. 
Gently raising one of the bars of the cage, I quietly 
passed the cord, which had been previously attached to 
the collar, through the ring at the end of the rod and 
made it fast with two half-hitches, then gently coaxed the 
animal to step outside, when the bar was quickly dropped 
into its socket to prevent the female in her attempt to 
follow her fellow prisoner. Holding the rod firmly 
with both hands so as to keep the animal at 
bay, if he should attempt to leap on me, I anxiously 
watched his movements for a few moments after his exit. 
He crouched, whisked his tail, and seemed as if he was 
preparing to jump on to me. Grasping the rod with a 
firm hold, so as to keep him at a distance, I passed some 
apprehensive moments awaiting developments^ Finally he 
purred and lay over on his side, as if he wished to be 
petted. Acting upon the manifestation, I grasped the rod 
firmly with my left hand and extended the other, as if I 
wished to caress him; whereupon he stretched himself 
out at full length and seemed to be anxiously awaiting 
fondling. His wishes were immediately granted, and in a 
short time I was kneeling alongside of him, and slipping 
the cord through the ring, the rod was dispensed with, 
and I never had occasion to make use of it afterward. 
He soon learned to trot by my side, and the slightest 
tension of the cord served to check any rapid movement. 
My experience with the female was somewhat more 
tedious, as she was exceedingly nervous and timid; but 
by exercising great patience and vigilance, I managed 
to secure her confidence and good will. My next move 
was to take both of them from the cage at the same time, 
and train them to walk alongside of me, one on each side. 
They were disposed to frisk a little at first, but continual 
twitches with the neck cord gradually cured them, and 
eventually they trotted along without the slightest at- 
tempt at romping. My next move was to introduce them 
into my house, so that they could prowl about the two 
rooms without being worried by the neck cords. They 
acted so quietly in their new surroundings that I con- 
cluded that it was not a new experience to them, but had 
been accustomed to the same privileges in the domicile of 
their former owner. 
Of course such an unusual addition to my family was 
soon noised about the neighborhood, and there was a 
large increase of my usual number of visitors. Among 
them was a little girl, brought by her father, who lived 
close at hand, with the excuse that the child had nearly 
worried the life out of him by constantly expressing a 
desire to see my two big cats. I acknowledge that it 
was with some misgivings that my consent was given for 
the introduction, and, to guard against any mishap, I put 
the neck cords and rods into use. To my great surprise 
and gratification I found that there was no occasion for 
their employment. The animals seemed to look on the 
child as an old acquaintance, and but a short time passed 
before she was seated on the floor between them, and 
fondling them to her heart's content. In a twinkling it 
struck me that the animals had been accustomed to a 
similar companion before they passed into my possession. 
Holding my tongue as to my conclusion, I exacted a 
promise from both father and child that no mention 
should be made of the incident; in return for which she 
should have the privilege of constantly coming and pet- 
ting the animals in my presence, and I can say that she 
constantly availed herself of the permission without ever 
receiving the slightest injury from the animals. 
A- short time subsequent the whole town was set agog 
by a story, told by_ a small boy, who lived a full half a 
mile from my domicile. He said that he was out in the 
bushes near his house when he suddenly came face to 
face with a spotted animal which was lying down under a 
vagrant banana tree. Opening his lips, in order to give 
