Isaac always was fattest in winter, especially during revivals, but at any time mother said he looked like a sheep's carcass after the buzzards had picked it.

It could be seen that he was perfectly strong, and could have fed and clothed himself, and Mandy and the children, quite as well as our father did us, if he had wanted to work, for we had the biggest family of the neighbourhood.

So we children made fun of him and we had to hold our mouths shut when he got up all tired and teary-like, and began to quaver: "Many dear childurn we know dew stan' Un toon ther harps in the better lan', Ther little hans frum each soundin' string, Bring music sweet, wile the Anguls sing, Bring music sweet, wile the Anguls sing,-- We shell meet them agin on that shore, We shell meet them agin on that shore, With fairer face, un angel grace, Each loved un ull welcome us ther.
"They uster mourn when the childurn died, Un said goo-bye at the river side, They dipped ther feet in the glidin' stream, Un faded away, like a loveli dream, Un faded away like a loveli dream." Then the chorus again, and then Isaac dropped on the front seat exhausted, and stayed there until some good-hearted woman, mostly my mother, felt so sorry about his shiftlessness she asked him to go home with us and warmed and fed him, and put him in the traveller's bed to sleep.

The way we played it was this: we stood together at the edge of a roadside puddle and sang the first verse and the chorus exactly as Isaac did.

Then I sang the second verse, and May was one of the "many dear childurn," and as I came to the lines she dipped her feet in the "glidin' stream," and for "fading away," she jumped across.
Now May was a careful little soul, and always watched what she was doing, so she walked up a short way, chose a good place, and when I sang the line, she was almost birdlike, she dipped and faded so gracefully.