"It's a compliment to be called Happy Tom.

Happy I was born and happy I am.

I'm so happy I must sing: "Ol Dan Tucker was a mighty fine man, He washed his face in the frying pan, He combed his hair with a wagon wheel And died with a toothache in his heel." "That's a great poem," said a long North Carolina youth named Ransome, "but I've got something that beats it all holler.

'Ole Dan Tucker' is nothing to 'Aunt Dinah's Tribberlations.'" "How does it go ?" asked St.Clair.
"It's powerful pathetic, telling a tale of disaster and pain.

The first verse will do, and here it is: "Ole Aunt Dinah, she got drunk, Felled in a fire and kicked up a chunk, Red-hot coal popped in her shoe, Lord a-mighty! how de water flew!" "We've had French and Italian opera in Charleston," said St.Clair, "and I've heard both in New Orleans, too, but nothing quite so moving as the troubles of Ole Dan Tucker and Ole Aunt Dinah." They sang other songs and the Guards, who filled two coaches of a train, joined in a great swinging chorus which thundered above the rattle of the engine and the cars, so noisy in those days.