Now and then some southerner with whom I
had become acquainted would try to draw me out to ascertain my
sentiments on the subject, but I always laughed, and said good
naturedly:
"My dear sir, I didn't come down here to talk about secession, but
to see if the southern climate would benefit my sick son."
The fact was that I minded my own business, and minded it so well
that while I was in New Orleans I managed to find a few patients and
sold recipes and medicines enough to pay the entire expenses of our
journey thus far, from the North.
Almost every day my son and I drove somewhere up to Carrolton, down
to the battle-ground, or on the shell road to Lake Ponchartrain. It
was a month of genuine enjoyment to us both; of profit to me
pecuniarily; and of the best possible benefit to Henry's health.
Early in January we took passage on one of the finest of the
Mississippi steamboats for St. Louis. The boat was crowded, and
among the passengers were a good many merchants, Northern men long
resident in New Orleans, who thought they saw trouble coming, and
accordingly had closed up their business in the Crescent City, and
were now going North to stay there. We had on board, too, the usual
complement of gamblers and amateur or professional poker-players,
who kept the forward saloon near the bar, and known in the river
vernacular as the "Texas" of the boat, lively all day long and well
into the night, or rather the next morning. It was ten or eleven
days before we reached St.
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