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