RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
of "For Seven Long Years I've Courted Nancy," but the words were our own and it was not difficult to supply a new verse to fit each incident or occasion as it came along. The song began:
Heigh ho! Cross roaring rivers!
For twelve long days we've hiked through mountains,
Ha! Ha! While on our way through wild Lepanto!
Up at Sagada we came upon the only bed of mint that any of us had ever seen in the Philippines, and as General Bell had almost an inspired knowledge as to what mint was originally intended for, this gave us material for three new verses:
Heigh ho! Among the rice fields!
One rainy day we reached Sagada,
Ha! Ha! As we toiled along o'er the hills of Bontoc!
Heigh ho! How did it get there?
A place most sweet with fragrant mint-beds,
Ha! Ha! Way high up in the hills of Bontoc!
Heigh ho! Without the cracked ice!
We didn't do a thing but make a julep,
Ha! Ha! With the mint we found in the hills of Bontoc!
It was a free-for-all composition contest; anybody was likely to produce a new verse, or even a whole new song with a different tune, at any moment, and we shortened many a long mile with such nonsense.
At Don José's we not only sang all our songs for the benefit of our host, but one of our number produced a harmonica, on which he played very well indeed, and we had an impromptu baile. Then we "dropped the handkerchief,"
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