A man in the colour guard started “Roll, Jordan, roll”—
“I want to get to Heaven when I die,—
To hear Jordan roll!”
The line protested. “Don’t sing about a river! There’s river enough in ours now!—That darkey, back there, said the levees were breaking.”
“Moses went up to de mountain top—
Land of Canaan, Canaan Land,
Moses went up to de mountain top—”
“Don’t sing that either! We’re nine hundred miles from the Blue Ridge and Canaan Land.... Sech a fool to sing about mountains and home!”
“Well,” said Colour Guard, “that was what I was thinking about. If anybody knows a cheerful hymn, I’ll be glad if he’ll line it out—”
“Don’t sing a hymn,” said the men. “Sing something gay. Edward Cary, you sing something.”