At first he didn't play very well, intentionally making many blunders and asking numerous questions; but when morning came, he was about seven hundred dollars ahead.

Bill put the money in his pocket, and just as he was leaving the room he advised them never to wake a man up and invite him to play poker.
[Illustration: LEARNING THE GAME.] Wild Bill remained with me until we reached Rochester.

I met my family there, and having bought some property in that city, with the intention of making the place my home, I asked Bill not to cut up any of his capers, for I wanted the performance to go off smoothly, as I expected a large audience that evening.

He, of course, promised to behave himself.
When the curtain rose the house was crowded.

The play proceeded finely until the Indian fight in the second act, when Bill amused himself by his old trick of singeing the legs of the "supers." After the curtain dropped, the "supers" complained to me about it.
Bill's conduct made me angry, and I told him that he must either stop shooting the "supers," or leave the company.