“Sure, it puts me in moind o’ the great famine in Ireland me father used to tell of. Ye’d go for a week or a day wid sorry a bit t’ ate of annything at all, at all, an’ thin ye’d get maybe a pratie or a crusht, that’d kape ye goin’ a bit longer. “There do be toimes in Brownsville that’d make ye think ye was dead an’ buried. Sure, the still o’ the nights is worse nor a thundershtorm for kapin’ a man awake, an’ the days is worse. “An’ thin, whin ye do be goin’ melancholy mad wid the monny-tony o’ loife that isn’t livin’ at all, at all, but blue-mouldin’, somethin’ or other’ll hit ye, loike a fri’ndly blackthorn at Donnybrook, an’ ye’ll sit up an’ take notice. Mostly it’s Long Mike, but times it’ll be something else. “An’ whin it do come, ye’ll think for a time that Brownsville is wan o’ the hid cinters of all th’ excitement on the Mississippi River. Maybe it’s a bit o’ gun-play it’ll be, wid a tin-horn gambler, loike th’ toime th’ one-eyed man cashed in, or belike it’ll be somethin’ or other wid Gallagher, but annyhow it shtirs things oop. This toime Oi do be thinkin’ it’ll be Hinnissy.” “An’ why would it be Hennessy?” asked Sam. “It wouldn’t on’y f’r Gallagher,” said Stumpy, “but thim two is like a hammer an’ a shtick o’ dynamite, or a mule’s hind leg an’ a sthraw. Av they do be kept apart, there’s no great harrum, but av ye bring thim together, belike there’s friction.” “They was playin’ cards sociable enough last night,” observed Sam. “That’s it,” replied Stumpy. “When thim two gets sociable, ye wants to kape yer eye open. Whin it’s a cussin’ f’m Gallagher, him bein’ foreman, or a kick f’m Hinnissy, that bein’ his disposition, they’re good friends. Sure they’re both of thim Oirish. But whin they get fri’ndly, they do be two naturalized citizens, wid Oirish blood an’ Mississippi River manners, an’ God knows.” “Did you hear anything?” “No, but I shmelt it, an’ this mornin’ the shmell is still in th’ air. My dog Peter has the scint of it, shtrong. He kim out wid me for a walk, an’ whin we passed Gallagher’s, he sniffed around loike he do for a rat. An’ he turned back an’ lay down in the road near Hinnissy’s place. Sure he knows more o’ some things nor a Christian.” “Then you think there’ll be trouble?” asked Sam, somewhat jeeringly. “Sure, Oi don’t think it,” said Stumpy, “but Oi do be tellin’ ye Oi shmell it.” What further discussion there might have been was cut off at this point by the appearance of two or three citizens in the distance. They were making their way leisurely toward Sam’s place of business, and he, foreseeing a demand for his services, went indoors. As if the appearance of the first comers on the street had been a signal, others presently appeared, and in a few minutes Brownsville had put on as much of an appearance of activity as was usual when there was no boat expected.