But If He Was Soft On The Arkansas Mosquitoes, He Was Hard Enough On The Mosquitoes Of Lake Providence To Make Up For It - 'those Lake Providence Colossi,' As He Finely Called Them.

He said that two of them could whip a dog, and that four of them could hold a man down; and except help come, they would kill him - 'butcher him,' as he expressed it.

Referred in a sort of casual way - and yet significant way - to 'the fact that the life policy in its simplest form is unknown in Lake Providence - they take out a mosquito policy besides.' He told many remarkable things about those lawless insects. Among others, said he had seen them try to vote. Noticing that this statement seemed to be a good deal of a strain on us, he modified it a little: said he might have been mistaken, as to that particular, but knew he had seen them around the polls 'canvassing.'

There was another passenger - friend of H.'s - who backed up the harsh evidence against those mosquitoes, and detailed some stirring adventures which he had had with them. The stories were pretty sizable, merely pretty sizable; yet Mr. H. was continually interrupting with a cold, inexorable 'Wait - knock off twenty-five per cent. of that; now go on;' or, 'Wait - you are getting that too strong; cut it down, cut it down - you get a leetle too much costumery on to your statements: always dress a fact in tights, never in an ulster;' or, 'Pardon, once more:

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