I finished my letter-writing, and her Pomp was told to take my satchel to the boat with the young woman. There were Colonel Thompson and son and daughter, who made themselves quite too familiar to be comfortable. I soon noticed the captain seemed quite disconcerted, and made many excuses. His cabin help were set to cleaning and setting things in order, and his cook sent ashore for nuts, candies, and fruits. We hardly had started when Colonel Thompson charged me with being a reporter for some periodical. I assured him of his mistake. Said he, "I knew you were a reporter; and when Mrs. Reeves was urging so persistently to have a dance, I whispered to my young folks not to have any thing to do with it, for you'd have us all in some newspaper." I told him I was writing a letter to my folks. Said he, "You need not think you are going to fool us in that way. I saw you write a few minutes, then stop, and listen awhile to Dr. Jackson and those young ladies, and then write again, then stop to listen to Mrs. Reeves, and then write again. I told my children they could see you had five or six pages for some paper; and you can never make me believe that was all for a letter. Now, if you will answer one question I'll release you. Haven't you written an article for a paper some time?" I hesitated, for the next query would be, "What paper? At length I thought of the note of correction I wrote for the Louisville _Courier_, while in that city, in behalf of Calvin Fairbanks, while he was there in prison. I finally told him I would not say I had never written any thing for a paper. "Now, if you will pardon me, just one more question, and if you will answer that I will be as good as my word, and trouble you no more on that score. What paper have you written for? I would like to know whether it was a Helena paper or any one in our State." "No, not in this State," said I; "I did write a little card for the Louisville _Courier_." "Ah, yes, that's it; that is a good Democratic paper. I am acquainted with the editor. I knew you were trying to cheat us all the while. I wish you would write an article for the Little Rock _Democrat_, If you will I will send the editor a letter of introduction; and I know he will pay you well for it." But I declined, and was very much relieved when the Thompson family reached their home in Pine Bluff. Here I saw their slaves come to meet them for their baggage. They urged me to stop with them and spend a week or two, and they would take me out into the country to see some beautiful plantations, as they had an excellent carriage driver. The young woman said "Pa has owned him a number of years, and could always risk us with him anywhere. Our plantation is not a very large one, as pa has always had a store on his hands, but there are some very large and beautiful ones beyond us."