Band books

The
table was clothed in clean white, and there was a napkin at each plate.
Nelson and I had the only perfectly fresh ones, and this I took as
evidence that napkins were usual. The food was all on the table, and was
very satisfactory to look at. Thompson sat at one end, and before him,
on a great platter, lay two dozen or more pieces of fried salt pork,
crisp in their shells of browned flour, and fit for a king. On one side
of the platter was a heaping dish of steaming potatoes. A knife had
been drawn once around each, just to give it a chance to expand and show
mealy white between the gaping circles that covered its bulk. At the
other side was a boat of milk gravy, which had followed the pork into
the frying-pan and had come forth fit company for the boiled potatoes. I
went back forty years at one jump, and said,--
"I now renew my youth. Is there anything better under the sun than fried
salt pork and milk gravy? If there is, don't tell me of it, for I have
worshipped at this shrine for forty years, and my faith must not be
shaken.


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