Let me grapple your fist, boy? I’d never have known
You, with all of those whiskers. Why, how you have grown!
Twelve years! well, it does make a difference, I see,
In you, as it probably has made in me.
I can’t tell how glad I’m to see you at last.
Sit down; take a pipe; and we’ll talk o’er the past.
AN AMBUSCADE.
The incident which gave rise to the following poem happened about 1861, in Western Virginia, somewhere in the Gauley River region. The story may be correct, or not. I do not vouch for its accuracy. At all events, I have considered it to be si non e vero, e ben trovato, as the Italian proverb has it. If it be not true, it is well feigned.
THE CHARGE BY THE FORD.
Eighty and nine with their captain