"No, Harry," whispered the roadmaster; "may I be shot if it's more than five." "But," replied Richards, "I have been living five years by the Mississippi, and you know"---- "Ah, nonsense!" interrupted Bob. "Five years--not an hour more. D'ye understand?" added he cautiously--"five years, if you're asked." The facts were thus. This respectable candidate for the representation of his fellow-citizens, had made his escape from his previous residence, the birthplace of Richards, on account of certain misdeeds, of which the sheriff and constables had taken cognizance, and after wandering about for a few years, had settled in Bainbridge county, where he seemed to have thriven--as far, at least, as whisky and human weakness had allowed him. We could hardly help laughing outright at the importance which Bob thought proper to attribute to us before his companions, the independent electors, whose votes he was desirous of securing. Æsculapius himself was a mere quacksalver compared to Squire Richards, whose twenty-five negroes were rapidly multiplied into a hundred; while my poor neglected plantation was, between brothers, well worth five hundred thousand dollars. We allowed Mr Bob to have it his own way; for it might have been dangerous to contradict a giant of his calibre, who was always ready to support his arguments with his huge cocoa nut-coloured fists. At last Richards was able to slip in a word. "You are not going to make your speech now, are you?" "May I be shot if I ain't, though! I'll begin at once." "Cannot we manage to change our clothes, and get some supper first?" said Richards. "Change your clothes!" said Bob contemptuously. "And what for, man? Not on our account; you're quite smart enough, quite good enough for us--no occasion to bother yourselves. If it's for your own pleasure, however, you can do it. Hallo, Johnny!" And he commenced a negotiation with Johnny, the host, who, to our great joy, took up a candle, and led the way into a sort of back parlour, with a promise that we should have our supper before very long. "Is there no other room where we can dress ourselves?" said I. "To be sure there is," was the answer. "There's the garret--only there's my daughter and a dozen gals sleepin' there; then there's the kitchen, if you like it better." I looked round the room. A servant girl was beginning to lay the table; and, unluckily, the apartment was connected by an open door with the kitchen, in which there was a loud noise of voices. I would have given a good deal for a quarter of an hour's undisturbed possession of the room. I looked about for our portmanteaus, but could see nothing of them. "Six smalls it ain't buffalo hide!" vociferated a young Stentor in the kitchen. "Six smalls its cow hide!" roared another. "If I am not very much mistaken," said Richards, "it is our portmanteaus that those fellows are betting about." "That would really be too bad," said I.