"Well, as she was close to the bank, I got in. The owner was General
John Meyer, from Vincennes, and his three sons, the colonel, the
captain, and the judge. They lent me a sort of thing, which many years
before had probably been a horse-blanket. With it I covered myself,
while one of the *'boys spread my clothes to dry, and, as I had nothing
left in the world, except thirty dollars in my pocket-book, I kept that
constantly in my hand till the evening, when, my clothes being dried, I
recovered the use of my pocket. The general was free with his 'Wabash
water' (western appellation for whisky), and, finding me to his taste,
as he said, he offered me a passage gratis to New Orleans, if I could
but submit myself to his homely fare; that is to say, salt pork, with
plenty of gravy, four times a day, and a decoction of burnt bran and
grains of maize, going under the name of coffee all over the States--the
whisky was to be _ad libitum_.
"As I considered the terms moderate, I agreed, and the hospitable
general soon entrusted me with his plans. He had gone many times to
Texas; he loved Texas--it was a free country, according to his heart;
and now he had collected all his own (he might have said, 'and other
people's too'), to go to New Orleans, where his pigs and corn, exchanged
against goods, would enable him to settle with his family in Texas in a
gallant style.
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