midday
All three , parting company , were happier for several hours . But the Californian 's were not the only fond schemes , aboard the _ Enchantress _ , that could go to wreck . Nor had `` California '' met his last disappointment even on this journey . As he and his reinforcements came out on the boiler deck with a hundred others from the midday feast the deck-hands below , for quicker unloading at Canal Street on the morrow , were shifting a lot of sacked corn from the hold to the forecastle-deck and were timing their work to a chantey . The song was innocently chosen in reference solely to the piece of river in which they chanced then to be , but all the more for its innocence it touched in that gentle knight a chord of sympathy . `` My own true love wuz lost an ' found -- O hahd times ! -- An ' lost ag ` in a-comin ' round Hahd Times Ben ' .