An’ druv ’em ’board de Ark as soon’s he heered de thunder rattle.
“Den sech anoder fall ob rain! it come so awful hebby,
De ribber riz immejitely, an’ bu’sted thro’ de lebbee;
De people all wuz drownded out—’sep’ Noah an’ de critters,
An’ men he’d hired to work de boat—an’ one to mix de bitters.
...
“Now, Ham, de only nigger whut wuz runnin’ on de packet,
Got lonesome in de barber-shop, an’ c’u’dn’t stan’ de racket;
An’ so, fur to amuse he-se’f, he steamed some wood an’ bent it,
An’ soon he had a banjo made—de fust dat wuz invented.