way of giving directions for his funeral was somewhat out of
the usual procedure but no one seemed to notice these little
discrepancies--

Beat the drum slowly boys, beat the drum lowly boys,
Beat the dead march as we hurry along.
To show that ye love me, boys, write up above me, boys,
"Here lies a poor cowboy who knows he done wrong."

In accordance with a popular custom, John SPOKE the last two words in a
very slow and distinct voice. This was considered a very fine thing to
do--it served the purpose of the "Finis" at the end of the book, or the
"Let us pray," at the end of the sermon.

The applause was very loud and very genuine.

Bud Perkins, who was the wit of the Perkins family, and called by his
mother a "regular cut-up," was at last induced to sing. Bud's
"Come-all-ye" contained twenty-three verses, and in it was set forth
the wanderings of one, young Willie, who left his home and native land
at a very tender age, and "left a good home when he left." His mother
tied a kerchief of blue around his neck. "God bless you, son," she
said. "Remember I will watch for you, till life itself is fled!" The
song went on to tell how long the mother watched in vain. Young Willie
roamed afar, but after he had been scalped by savage bands and left for
dead upon the sands, and otherwise maltreated by the world at large, he
began to think of home, and after shipwrecks, and dangers and
hair-breadth escapes, he reached his mother's cottage door, from which
he had gone long years before.

Then of course he tried to deceive his mother, after the manner of all
boys returning after a protracted absence--

Oh, can you tell me, ma'm, he said,
How far to Edinboro' town.

But he could not fool his mother, no, no! She knew him by the kerchief
blue, still tied around his neck.

When the applause, which was very generous, had been given, Jim Russell
wanted to know how young Willie got his neck washed in all his long
meanderings, or if he did not wash, how did he dodge the health
officers.

George Slater gravely suggested that perhaps young Willie used a
dry-cleaning process--French chalk or brown paper and a hot iron.

Peter Slater said he did not believe it was the same handkerchief at
all. No handkerchief could stand the pace young Willie went. It was
another one very like the one he had started off with. He noticed them
in the window as he passed, that day, going cheap for cash.

The young Englishman l