that she had learned what
she wanted. Idly she looked down the company street. "What are those men
doing?" she asked.

A bunch of the men, growing every minute, had been singing to the tune of
Solomon Levi words that were not clear to us, being too far away. "It
must be the new company song," I said. "I've been told it's good. The
fellows are learning it.--See, they're coming this way. I believe they
mean to sing it to the captain!"

Our other visitors were returning, headed by the captain and Frances. The
men, grouped by the water barrel at the head of the street, waited till
he was near, pushed their leader out in front, and in hoarse whispers
commanded him to begin. You must understand that Vera promptly, but
without hurry, had got me close enough to listen. He sang the solo.

"One night as I lay dreaming,
Underneath the stars,
The buzzard stole between the tents
To sell us chocolate bars.
The captain took him by the scruff
And kicked him in the seat,
And said 'You greedy buzzard,
Get out of the company street!'"

The delighted men roared the chorus.

"Poor old buzzard, get away out of here!
Poor old buzzard, get away out of here
For we are Captain Kirby's men,
We neither drink nor swear,
We never wash our hands or face
Nor change our underwear.
We never do a thing that's wrong,
As you can plainly see,
For we are Captain Kirby's men
Of old H company!"

Then, evidently immensely pleased, and laughing to themselves, the
fellows melted away in all directions.

As for Vera, she was not daunted by the primitive simplicity of the
words. She looked at the captain and noted his confusion, looked at me
and made no answer to my question, "Now don't you see they like him?" But
she gave me a kindly little push toward Frances, and said, "Go and talk
with her. I've brought her all this way to see you." And in another
moment she had the captain as her partner, and was making him tell her
all the little things she would not listen to from me.

It was nice to see Frances. She told me all about you, and asked about
David; and the street being now very neat with the laundry put away, and
my tent not