“Sing louder,” he commanded, tramping up and down and scowling at his companions.
A young man of the party who had a reputation as a dancer refused to perform when commanded. Springing forward Sam dragged him out on the deck before the shouting crowd.
“Now dance!” he growled, “or I will throw you into the river.”
The young man danced furiously, and Sam marched up and down and looked at him and at the leering faces of the men and women lounging along the deck or shouting at the dancer. The liquor in him beginning to take effect, a queerly distorted version of his old passion for reproduction came to him and he raised his hand for silence.
“I want to see a woman who is a mother,” he shouted. “I want to see a woman who has borne children.”
A small woman with black hair and burning black eyes sprang from the group gathered about the dancer.
“I have borne children--three of them,” she said, laughing up into his face. “I can bear more of them.”
Sam looked at her stupidly and taking her by the arm led her to a chair on the deck. The crowd laughed.
“Belle is after his roll,” whispered a short, fat man to his companion, a tall woman with blue eyes.
As the steamer, with its load of men and women drinking and singing songs, went up the river past bluffs covered with trees, the woman beside Sam pointed to a row of tiny houses at the top of the bluffs.
“My children are there. They are getting supper now,” she said.
She began singing, laughing and waving a bottle to the others sitting along the deck. A youth with heavy features stood upon a chair and sang a song of the street, and, jumping to her feet, Sam’s companion kept time with the bottle in her hand. Sam walked over to where the captain stood looking up the river.
“Turn back,” he said, “I am tired of this crew.”
On the way back down the river the black-eyed woman again sat beside Sam.
“We will go to my house,” she said quietly, “just you and me. I will show you the kids.”
Darkness was gathering over the river as the boat turned, and in the distance the lights of the city began blinking into view. The crowd had grown quiet, sleeping in chairs along the deck or gathering in small groups and talking in low tones. The black-haired woman began to tell Sam her story.