"It was pathetic, and comical, too, gentlemen, to hear that nigger beg me on his bended knees to take better care of myself and not insist upon getting to the front of every charge.

'Stay back and let some of the others do a little fighting,' he would say, with tears rolling down his black cheeks.

And I admit I was rash, but--" Clem, not long after their arrival, confided to such of us as seemed worthy the less romantic tale that he had found the Colonel drunk on the streets of Cincinnati.

He had gone there to seek a fortune for his "folks" and had found the Colonel instead; found him under circumstances which were typical of the Colonel's periods of relaxation.
"Yes, seh, anybody coulda had that man when Ah found him," averred Clem; "anybody could 'a' had him fo' th' askin'.

A p'liceman offaseh neahly git him--yes, seh.