16 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



Another, I think, was about a woodpecker; it 

 began : 



" By the side of yon sumach, 



Whose red berry dips 



In the gush of the fountain, 



How sweet to recline." 



He sang very well, and played solemn music on the 

 piano to his own satisfaction. 



By this time old Joe had got his throat clear. He 

 began, in a stentorian voice, a song on the battle of 

 Waterloo, of which I only remember the first verse : 



" In aighteen hundert an* fifteen, 

 Of June the aighteenth daay, 

 We fought the French at Waterloo, 

 An' made them run awaay." 



Then Tom Dyer, the ostler, gave us a sporting song 

 about "Little Brown Bess." This extraordinary 

 mare 



*' Had won more money on this very daay 

 Than a coach and six horses could carry awaay." 



Bill Watkins, the cowman, was a tall, handsome 

 young fellow, upright as a grenadier, with black 

 mutton-chop whiskers and curly black hair, and con- 

 ceited and vain as a peacock. They called him 

 " Swaggering Billy." He fancied himself a poet, and 

 composed a song in praise of himself, and sang it ; 

 it began in this way : 



" Six feet high is Billy's portion, 

 I know he is a clever lad," 



and so on for several verses. He had a rich, powerful 

 voice, and sang very well ; his music atoned somewhat 



