Order of Service: Sunday Morning, Near Wheeling, on the Ohio, June 1810

HOLD up, hold up, you Jersey folk,
Fetch in the reins, you ’Ghany men!
All Yanks and Dutchies halt your yoke:
The foremost wagon’s bogged again.
Bogged down hub-deep in ’Hio clay —
The Devil take these watersheds.
Hi-yup! The foremost wagon, hey!
Pour leather in them tender-breds!
(Here shall the horses bow their heads.

Come up, come up, you wagoneers,
Hitch up your belts a notch or two;
Bring on that team of bull-neck steers —
There’s work ahead for steers to do.
On-hook them horses’ traces, Jem,
Yoke on them critters. Jonas, peel
Your coat, and fling it under ’em —
They’ve lost their footen — let ’em feel. . . ,
(In this place shall the oxen kneel.

You jaunten-men, you ’Ginny lads,
You Methody one-horse preacher folks,
Light down from off your drivers’ pads
And put your weight against them spokes.
She’s clear. Hi-yup, and let ’em roll!
Pass on the word we roll again.
— The Devil takes the Devil’s toll,
But can’t keep Us from travelen!
(And all the people shall say Amen.

MERLE COLBY