ath I shall calm recline,
O bear my heart to my mistress dear.

Tell her it lived on smiles and wine
Of brightest hue while it languished here.

Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow,
To sully a heart so brilliant and light,

But balmy drops of the red grape borrow
To bathe the relict from morn till night.

He sang it in kind of a sing song. Then John kept tellin' stories and
fiddlin'; and finally he struck up a tune that was more lively than
any, and the white-haired gentleman got up and danced faster and
gracefuler than ever. Then John told a story. Everybody was laughin'. By
this time the captain had Mitch on his knee, and you never did see such
fun and good friendship; and a man who'd been keepin' quiet except for
laughin' pulled me over to him and said, "You look like your dad. Your
dad is the best man in this county, the best lawyer and the best friend.
You be as good as your dad, and you're all right." I said, "Yes, sir,"
and was almost too happy to live.

Then the party kind a broke up. The old gentleman was talkin' to a fat
man, who was pretty full of beer; and John was talkin' to the captain.
Mitch and me just sat there and watched. Then I heard John ask the
captain, "When you goin' to pull out?" "Not till Saturday," said the
captain. "To-morrow or next day we may pull up to Copperas Creek; but we
won't go back till Saturday." "Wal," says John, "is that so? Not till a
Saturday?"

Mitch and me thought it was time to start to help with the dinner. So we
went away and the party seemed to break up. We got the potatoes peeled
and finally everything was cooked and all ready, and we was about to
help wait on the table as before, when one of the waiters came in and
said, "The captain wants to see you, boys." So we went in and there was
the captain at his own table with John and Col. Lambkin, and all the
rest of the men just ready to eat. And the captain says, "Here, boys,
come and sit here with us." So then we were at the captain's table, with
the waiters waitin' on us and lookin' kind of funny to see what had
happened and wonderin' why.

And at the dinner table John says: "Why don't you boys come home with
me, and then come back here a Saturday, and catch the boat? You must
visit me some time and why not now? There never was a better time."

The captain says: "That's the thing to do, boys. We're goin' up to
Copperas Creek and there ain't a thing in that. And you can go over