A CHRISTMAS WITH "OLD PORT." 355 



and there was General Martin Miller. Said he: "Port 

 will want to know that you are here, and I'll go tell him; 

 I've sent down for old Billy Bishop to come up here, and 

 help serve the dinner, for we want Port to sit down and 

 keep down." 



While General Miller Mat we called him, for we 

 were not too stiff in our intercourse was gone in came 

 Billy Bishop. The old fellow shook hands and said: "I 

 don'd like to get this hill up by Fred Aiken's ole spook 

 house when der nide coom, but by der day he was all 

 ride." Then in came Tobias Teller, a bachelor of some 

 fifty summers and no one knew how many hard winters, 

 who lived down on the banks of the classic stream which 

 we called the Popskinny, the spelling of which is disputed 

 by Colonel Teller and Mr. Stott. He was a delightful 

 old fellow, with a flavor of cognac and madeira about 

 him that mellowed the atmosphere in his vicinity. He 

 was called Tobi among his intimates. His worthy 

 nephew (my army comrade), Colonel David A. Teller, 

 resembles him in many respects, especially in being a 

 bachelor. Then came Low Dearstyne, pilot and captain 

 of the railroad ferry. His name was Lawrence, but the 

 Albany Dutch shortened it to Low; please rhyme this 

 with "now," and not with the negative. The Irish call 

 the name Larrence, and abbreviate to Larry, and, as the 

 old Dutch have gone, this explanation may be necessary : 

 Larry is Irish, and Low is Dutch for Lawrence. Then 

 came Jim Lansing, a man of about forty-five years, who 

 kept a hotel at Clinton Heights, but had been a hotel man 

 in several places. He also was from one of the old Dutch 

 families. 



The dinner came on. There was no printed nor writ- 

 ten menu, but, as I remember it, the feed was in this 

 order : 



