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-3-

My education was further advanced in the bar lounge. The bar had no bourbon, so I got my first taste of Scotch. I [[crossed out]] do [[/crossed out]] didn't like it at first, but found that it seemed to improve as I became used to it. There also I drank stout for the first time. It was Bass's ale, pronounced Bahss. In the bar lounge, finally, I learned poker, draw and stud. Out of consideration for my inexperience my friends made it penny ante. So my initiation was not expensive. I learned so well that later, playing with others for higher stakes, I made a net profit out of my army stint.

I had the good luck also to meet a chess player. He was a Lieutenant Chandler of the 101st, a Bostonian. We played a fairly even game and spent many hours at it. Chandler reminded me, in one way, of my great-uncle Gus Winters. Each of them had a sort of incantation he would repeat aloud, over and over, as he pondered his next move. Uncle Gus used to tax my father's patience when g they played checkers together. When Uncle Gus had to decide on a move he would begin to repeat, slowly and thoughtfully, "Con-sti-tu-tion-al-i-ty and in-div-is-i-bil-i-ty". That went on until he made his move, after which he lapsed into silence during my father's turn. The words of Uncle Gus's incantation never changed while I knew him. I don't know where he got them. I thought perhaps they might have been a political slogan he had picked up in his boyhood during the Civil War, when the Winterses were Union sympathizers.

Chandler's incantation was longer, and he sang it. But like Uncle Gus, he sang it only when it was his turn to move. Then he would sing softly, so as not to disturb the people around us, the refrain of a silly waltz song then current:

"One, two, three four, sometimes I wish there were more.
Ein, zwei, drei, vier, I love the one that's near.
-.-.-.-., so says the heathen Chinee.
So boys take care, and girls beware of one, two and three."

You will have guessed from the blanks above, that I have forgotten how to count in Chinese. That is strange, considering how many times in each game I heard Chandler do it. He never sang anything else, having found, I suppose, that only that song helped his brain to work.