ng
and driving and driving across country, to work the fit out ... no, he
never touches anything stronger than tobacco and coffee now....

"In a few days he comes back ... no one says a word ... we all know ...
and love and respect him....

"He's happy now, is Uncle Bill ... married a young wife ... has a home
all his own ... money piling up in the bank."

* * * * *

Ally Merton smiled quizzically when I spoke of Uncle Bill to him....

"Yes, Uncle Bill's a fine, quaint old chap ... whenever he has a tiff
with his wife--of course, never anything serious--he locks himself in
the kitchen ... closes all the windows ... smokes up terrifically with
his corncob ... and plays and plays for hours on end ... his Red Seal
records of classical music of which he is so fond.

"This behaviour of his is a well-known joke among us, a joke with his
wife, to!" ... the speaker paused, to continue--

"He has a good library and quite a large knowledge of the English
poets."

"That makes it all the more terrible," I replied, "for if he wrote his
verse-prose out of ignorance, he might be somewhat forgiven ... but he
knows better."

* * * * *

I gave a lecture on Keats to a woman's club. They paid me thirty dollars
for the lecture....

"Well, you surely made a killing ... those old birds will worship you
for life," sniggered Ally.

* * * * *

Mackworth and I had a farewell talk before I returned to Laurel. We
stood again in front of his office, on the sunny street ... he had come
out to bid me good-bye.

We talked of the folk poetry of America.... Mackworth recited to me
several of the songs and ballads which I have since seen in Lomax's book
of Cowboy Songs.... I repeated the tale of how I had collected the
jail-songs that I subsequently lost while jumping a freight....

"There's lots of poetry in American life ... Stephen Foster Collins
scratched the surface of it ... but he was a song writer....

"There's poetry on farm, ranch, in small town, big city, all waiting for
the transmuting touch of the true singer ... not newspaper rhymes ...
neither the stock effusions on Night, Love, Death and Immortality
inserted as tail-piece to stories and articles in magazines....

"There's the negro mind ...--ought to hear them sing, making up songs as
they load and unload boats along the Mississippi ... nobody's ever dug
back into the black