I WAS drivin' my two-mule waggin, With a lot o' truck for sale,
Towards Macon, to git some baggin'
(Which my cotton was ready to bale),
And I come to a place on the side o' the pike Whar a peert little winter branch jest had throw'd The sand in a kind of a sand-bar like,
And I seed, a leetle ways up the road,
A man squattin' down, like a big bull-toad, On the ground, a-figgerin' thar in the sand With his finger, and motionin' with his hand, And he looked like Ellick Garry.
And as I driv up, I heerd him bleat
To hisself, like a lamb: “Hauh? nine from eight Leaves nuthin'—and none to carry?"
And Ellick's bull-cart was standin'
A cross-wise of the way,
And the little bull was a-expandin',
Hisself on a wisp of hay.
But Ellick he sat with his head bent down,
A-studyin' and musin' powerfully,
And his forrud was creased with a turrible frown,
And he was a-wurken' appearently
A 'rethmetic sum that wouldn't gee,
Fur he kep' on figgerin' away in the sand
With his finger, and motionin' with his hand, And I seed it was Ellick Garry.
And agin I heard him softly bleat
To hisself, like a lamb: "Hauh? nine from eight Leaves nuthin'—and none to carry!"
I woa'd my mules mighty easy (Ellick's back was towards the road And the wind hit was sorter breezy) And I got down off'n my load,
And I crep' up close to Ellick's back, And I heerd him a-talkin' softly, thus: "Them figgers is got me under the hack. I caint see how to git out'n the muss, Except to jest nat'ally fail and bus'!
My crap-leen calls for nine hundred and more. My counts o' sales is eight hundred and four, Of cotton for Ellick Garry.
Thar's eight, ought, four, jest like on a slate : Here's nine and two oughts-Hauh? nine from eight Leaves nuthin'-and none to carry.
"Them crap-leens, oh, them crap-leens! I giv one to Pardman and Sharks.
Hit gobbled me up like snap-beans In a patch full o' old fiel'-larks.
But I thought I could fool the crap-leen nice, And I hauled my cotton to Jammel and Cones. But shuh! 'fore I even had settled my price They tuck affidavy without no bones
And levelled upon me fur all ther loans
To the 'mount of sum nine hundred dollars or more, And sold me out clean for eight hundred and four,
As sure as I'm Ellick Garry!
And thar it is down all squar and straight,
But I can't make it gee, fur nine from eight Leaves nuthin'-and none to carry."
Then I says " Hello, here, Garry! However you star' and frown Thare's somethin' fur you to carry,
Fur you I've worked it upside down!" Then he riz and walked to his little bull-cart, And made like he neither had seen nor heerd Nor knowed that I knowed of his raskilly part, And he tried to look as if he wa'nt feared, And gathered his lines like he never keered, And he driv down the road 'bout a quarter or so, And then looked around, and I hollered "Hello, Look here, Mister Ellick Garry!
You may git up soon and lie down late,
But you'll always find that nine from eight
Leaves nuthin'-and none to carry."
MORE IN THE MAN THAN THAR IS IN THE LAND.
I KNOWED a man, which he lived in Jones, Which Jones is a county of red hills and stones, And he lived pretty much by gittin' of loans, And his mules was nuthin' but skin and bones, And his hogs was flat as his corn-bread pones, And he had 'bout a thousand acres o' land.
This man-which his name it was also Jones
He swore that he 'd leave them old red hills and stones, Fur he couldn't make nuthin' but yallerish cotton,
And little o' that, and his fences was rotten, And what little corn he had, hit was boughten And dinged ef a livin' was in the land.
And the longer he swore the madder he got, And he riz and he walked to the stable lot, And he hollered to Tom to come thar and hitch Fur to emigrate somewhar whar land was rich, And to quit raisin' cock-burrs, thistles and sich, And a wastin' ther time on the cussed land.
So him and Tom they hitched up the mules, Pertestin' that folks was mighty big fools That 'ud stay in Georgy ther lifetime out, Jest scratchin' a livin' when all of 'em mought Git places in Texas whar cotton would sprout By the time you could plant it in the land.
And he driv by a house whar a man named Brown Was a livin', not fur from the edge o' town, And he bantered Brown fur to buy his place, And said that bein' as money was skace, And bein' as sheriffs was hard to face, Two dollars an acre would git the land.
They closed at a dollar and fifty cents, And Jones he bought him a waggin and tents, And loaded his corn, and his wimmin, and truck, And moved to Texas, which it tuck
His entire pile, with the best of luck,
To git thar and git him a little land.
But Brown moved out on the old Jones' farm, And he rolled up his breeches and bared his arm, And he picked all the rocks from off'n the groun', And he rooted it up and he plowed it down, Then he sowed his corn and his wheat in the land.
Five years glid by, and Brown, one day (Which he'd got so fat that he wouldn't weigh), Was a settin' down, sorter lazily,
To the bulliest dinner you ever see,
When one o' the children jumped on his knee And says,
"Yan's Jones, which you bought his land."
And thar was Jones, standin' out at the fence, And he hadn't no waggin, nor mules, nor tents, Fur he had left Texas afoot and cum
To Georgy to see if he couldn't git sum Employment, and he was a lookin' as hum-
Ble as ef he had never owned any land.
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