Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Nebuchadnezzar

By Irwin Russell (1853–1879)

YOU, Nebuchadnezzah, whoa, sah!

Whar is you tryin’ to go, sah?

I’d hab you fur to know, sah,

I’s a-holdin’ ob de lines.

You better stop dat prancin’;

You’s pow’ful fond ob dancin’,

But I’ll bet my yeah’s advancin’

Dat I’ll cure you ob yo’ shines.

Look heah, mule! Better min’ out;

Fus’ t’ing you know you’ll fin’ out

How quick I’ll wear dis line out

On yo’ ugly, stubbo’n back.

You needn’t try to steal up

An’ lif’ dat precious heel up;

You’s got to plough dis fiel’ up,

You has, sah, fur a fac’.

Dar, dat’s de way to do it!

He’s comin’ right down to it;

Jes’ watch him ploughin’ troo it!

Dis nigger ain’t no fool.

Some folks dey would ’a’ beat him;

Now, dat would only heat him—

I know jes’ how to treat him:

You mus’ reason wid a mule.

He minds me like a nigger.

If he wuz only bigger

He’d fotch a mighty figger,

He would, I tell you! Yes, sah!

See how he keeps a-clickin’!

He’s as gentle as a chickin,

An’ nebber thinks o’ kickin’—

Whoa dar! Nebuchadnezzah!

Is dis heah me, or not me?

Or is de debbil got me?

Wuz dat a cannon shot me?

Hab I laid heah more’n a week?

Dat mule do kick amazin’!

De beast wuz sp’iled in raisin’—

But now I ’spect he’s grazin’

On de oder side de creek.