“But listen here, O. D., you know a mule is one of them persons a man can’t lead any too easy. The first long-eared brat that I got didn’t have no intention of goin’ to France—not if he could help it. I took the halter-shank and went as far up that gangway as the slack of my rope let me. Then I stopped. A mule, ’specially these army ones, is stronger than most men. That fellow I had was a regular Goliath. He just stood there like a statue. Well, I pulled and cussed about ten minutes and got a nigger-boy to wallop that brute over the hind with a thick plank. Nothin’ doin’. “That mule was a slacker. He just wasn’t goin’ to France and fight. You know how aggravatin’ a top-sergeant, more so an actin’ one, can be. ‘Git on that rope and drag your mule up; you’re holdin’ up the ship,’ bawls O’Rourke. Can you imagine that stuff from a man like O’Rourke, who had spent quite a bit o’ time with mules and knew their tricks. ‘Git on the rope yourself,’ I shot back. See, I’d only been in the army a little time and a top-sergeant didn’t seem like no tin god to me. “Course O’Rourke was sore as a boil. But he couldn’t do nothin’. We got a detail at the head and stern of that critter and when somebody counted three everybody yanked and pushed. The damn mule stood fast, but Berny Garrity and another guy went overboard while several others landed on different bales of cotton nearby. We got some coons to help us. Them niggers shouted like madmen in a side-show. But nothin’ doin’. Finally we hooked that fool mule onto a pulley with _beaucoup_ ropes and hauled him aboard. It was a battle to get that gink in his stall. “The ship was loaded and ready to start to France at three bells that afternoon. ’Bout four we pulled up the anchor and got under way. When we got so far out into the ocean that shore was just like a low cloud in the west I said, ‘Good-by, old America.’ Thought I’d never see the United States for many moons again. Can you imagine us wakin’ up the next mornin’ in plain sight of Jersey coast? We did—and went into New York Harbor for a convoy. “After waitin’ thirty-six hours they finally got all of the tubs in a line that was to go across with us. I never saw such a fleet of fishin’-smacks and whalers in all my life. There wasn’t one that could make over seven miles an hour, except ourselves, as we soon found out. “The Statue of Liberty was about the last friend I seen as we pulled out of New York and hit for the briny. That night we were out to sea for fair and the _Panaman_ did some stunts that would make a good Holy Roller feel ashamed.