1 <h1>In the Caboose.</h1>
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4 "Train delayed? and what's to say?"
5 "Blocked by last night's snow they say."
6 Seven hours or so to wait;
7 Well, that's pleasant! but there's the freight.
8 Depot loafing no one fancies,
9 We'll try the caboose and take our chances.
11 Cool this morning in Watertown,
12 Somewhat frosty___mercury down;
13 Enter caboose___roaring fire,
14 With never an air-hole; heat so dire
15 That we shrivel and pant; we are roasted through-
16 Outside, thermometer thirty-two.
18 We start with a jerk and suddenly stop.
19 "What's broke?" says one; another "What's up?",
20 "Oh, nothing," they answer, "That's our way:
21 You must stand the jerking, sorry to say."
22 We "stand it" with oft this painful thought:
23 Are our heads on yet, or are they not?
25 Comrades in misery___let me see;
26 Girl like a statue opposite me;
27 Back and forth the others jostle___
28 She never winks, nor moves a muscle;
29 See her, as she sits there now;
30 She's "well balanced," anyhow.
32 Woman in trouble, tearful eyes,
33 Sits by the window, softly cries,
34 Pity___for griefs we may not know,
35 For breasts that ache, for tears that flow,
36 Though we know not why. Her eyelids red
37 Tell a sorrowful tale___some hope is dead.
39 Man who follows the Golden Rule,
40 And lends his papers___a pocket full,
41 Has a blank book___once in a minute
42 Has an idea, and writes it in it.
43 Guess him? Yes, of course I can,
44 He's a___well___a newspaper man.
46 Blue-eyed fairy, wrapped in fur;
47 Sweet young mother tending her.
48 Fairy thinks it's "awful far,"
49 Wants to get off this "naughty car."
50 So do we, young golden-hair;
51 All this crowd are with you there!
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56 <p><a href="http://skyways.lib.ks.us/poetry/walls/caboose.html">-- Ellen P. Allerton.</a></p>