"The best you can do is to go to bed,
And keep a decent tongue in your head;
For I reckon, before you and I are done,
You'll wish you had left honest folks alone."
The Old Cove stopped, and t'other Old Cove
He sot quite still in his cypress grove,
And he looked at his stick revolvin' slow
Whether 'twere safe to shy it or no,—
And he grumbled on, in an injured tone,
"All that I axed vos, let me alone."
Henry Howard Brownell.
Texas, by a majority of over three to one, voted to join the Confederacy, and seized more than a million dollars' worth of government munitions. Some were saved by the Union troops, notably those at Fort Duncan.
A SPOOL OF THREAD
[March, 1861]
Well, yes, I've lived in Texas since the spring of '61;
And I'll relate the story, though I fear, sir, when 'tis done,
'Twill be little worth your hearing, it was such a simple thing,
Unheralded in verses that the grander poets sing.
There had come a guest unbidden, at the opening of the year,
To find a lodgment in our hearts, and the tenant's name was fear;
For secession's drawing mandate was a call for men and arms,
And each recurring eventide but brought us fresh alarms.
They had notified the General that he must yield to fate,
And all the muniments of war surrender to the state,
But he sent from San Antonio an order to the sea
To convey on board the steamer all the fort's artillery.
Right royal was his purpose, but the foe divined his plan,
And the wily Texans set a guard to intercept the man
Detailed to bear the message; they placed their watch with care
That neither scout nor citizen should pass it unaware.