rol and then Mr.
Wilson administered chastisement. His wife could not bear to have the
boy punished. 'Don't hit him, Jimmie, don't kick him,' would say the
good Scotch woman, who was childless. 'If he does not obey me I will
whip him,' James Wilson would answer. So the boy learned the lesson of
obedience from the old couple and learned many lessons in thrift through
their examples.

"In 1883 I left the Wilson home and began working and trying to save
some money. River trade was prosperous and I became a 'Roustabout'. The
life of the roustabout varied some with the habits of the roustabout and
the disposition of the mate. We played cards, shot dice and talked to
the girls who always met the boats. The 'Whistling Coon' was a popular
song with the boatmen and one version of 'Dixie Land'. One song we often
sang when near a port was worded 'Hear the trumpet Sound'--

Hear the trumpet sound,
Stand up and don't sit down,
Keep steppin' 'round and 'round,
Come jine this elegant band.

If you don't step up and jine the bout,
Old Missus sure will fine it out,
She'll chop you in the head wid a golen ax,
You never will have to pay da tax,
Come jine the roust-a-bout band."

From roust-a-bout George became a cabin boy, cook, pilot, and held a
number of positions on boats, plowing different streams. There was much
wild game to be had and the hunting season was always open. He also
remembers many wolves, wild turkeys, catamounts and deer in abundance
near the Grand River. "Pet deer loafed around the milking pens and ate
the feed from the mangers" said he.

George Fortman is a professor of faith in Christ. He was baptized in
Concord Lake, seven miles from Clarksville, Tennessee, became a member
of the Pleasant Greene Church at Callwell, Kentucky and later a member
of the Liberty Baptist Church at Evansville.

"I have always kept in touch with my white folks, the George family,"
said the man, now feeble and blind. "Four years ago Mistress Puss died
and I was sent for but was not well enough to make the trip home."

Too young to fight in the Civil War, George was among those who watched
the work go on. "I lived at Smiths Landing and remember the battle at
Fort Donnelson. It was twelve miles away and a long cinder walk reached
from the fort for nearly thirty miles. The cinders were brought from the
iron ore mills and my mother and I have walked the length of it many
times." Still reviewing the long, dark trail h