A Hoghead on his deathbed lay;
His life was ebbing fast away,
His friends around him closely pressed
To hear the hoghead's last request.
He said, "Before I bid adieu
One last request I ask of you:
Before I soar beyond the stars
Just hook me onto ninety cars.
"And let me on that engine there
See how rough I can handle the air;
Oh let me at some water tank
Make a bighole stop, and give a yank.
Then from the corner of my eye
I'll watch the pieces as they fly;
Then, I'll calmly turn around
And watch the dust cloud settle down.
"Oh, let me pull a drawhead out,
Then take my can with its long spout,
And when I'm safely on the ground
I'll take my time and oil around.
Then far behind in that red caboose
I'll hear the conductor cutting loose
A few pet names, as in days of yore
I've heard a thousand times or more.
"Oh just once more before I'm dead
Let me stand a conductor on his head
And see him crawl from out the wreck
With a window sash hung 'round his neck.
And when he comes and wants to fight,
I will look so innocent like;
And the old excuse I will proclaim
"There's a dynamiter in the train."
"Oh let the train with drawbars down
Have every crossing blocked in town.
And, when they chain those cars together
Oh let it be in sloppy weather.
And on my tombstone put no name
If I can't start and break the chain.
And you, kind friends, I'll have to thank
If you let me die at a water tank.
|
"Let my ears hear that familiar sound -
The tallow pulling the tank spout down;
Oh Let me hold in my greasy hand
A bunch of waste and my old oil can.
And let me die there on the ground
Where I've spent my life oiling around;
If a hoghead dies with conditions like this
I know he will die in perfect bliss.
"And when at last in the grave I'm laid
let it be in the water tank shade,
And put within my lifeless hand
A bunch of waste and my old oil can.
A marble slab I do not crave;
Just mark the head of my lonely grave
With a drawbar pointing toward the skies
At the spot where this poor hogger lies."
Then fainter grew the hoghead's breath,
His friends around him closely pressed;
His mind was wandering far away
Perhaps, to some far distant day
When he, a hogger of great renown
Was turning cabooses upside down.
Perhaps his mind had wandered back
To a drawbar lying beside the track.
While he in trying to start the train
Was doing his best to break the chain.
His face lit up with a joyful light
And his soul prepared to take its flight;
His friends bent o'er and called his name -
He smiled and said, "I broke the chain."
Then closing his eyes, he said no more,
He was doubling the hill to the other shore.
-- Author unknown
|