"'It's gone to about fourth drink time after supper, an' I'm
romancin' about, tryin' to figger out how I'm to win Polly, when as
I'm waltzin' along the levee--I'm plumb alone, an' the town itse'f
has turned into its blankets--I gets sight of this yere poker
festival ragin' in the cabin. Thar they be, antein', goin' it blind,
straddlin', raisin' before the draw, bluffin', an' bettin', an'
havin' the time of their c'reers.
"'It's the spring flood, an' the old Cumberland is bank-full an'
still a-risin'. The flat boat is softly raisin' an' fallin' on the
sobbin' tide. It's then them jocular impulses seizes me, that a-way;
an' I stoops an' casts off her one line, an' that flat boat swims
silently away on the bosom of the river. The sports inside knows
nothin' an' guesses less, an' their gayety swells on without a
hitch.
"'It's three o'clock an' Jedge Finn, who's won about a hundred an'
sixty dollars, realizes it's all the money in the outfit, an' gets
cold feet plenty prompt. He murmurs somethin' about tellin' the old
lady Finn he'd be in early, an' shoves back amidst the scoffs an'
jeers of the losers. But the good old Jedge don't mind, an' openin'
the door, he goes out into the night an' the dark, an' carefully
picks his way overboard into forty foot of water.
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