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SETTIN' A-STRADDLE THE FENCE, by                    
First Line: Don't reckon none of ye knowed huckaby goss
Last Line: He's settin' a-straddle the fince.


Don't reckon none of ye knowed Huckaby Goss
Fer that wuz precedin' your day,
He wuz a feller 'at lived in these parts
When railroads first p'inted this way;
My Daddy wuz one of our country's best men
An' Dad had a head full o' sinse,
He said that Huckaby's onliest stand
Wuz settin' a-straddle the fince.

His wife had to see 'bout bizness affairs
Cause Huckaby'd never decide
(Wonder what kind of a riffle wuz made
To git 'im to take on a bride)
So long as they wuzn't but only one route,
He toted hisself like a prince,
But let two angles swing out into view
You'd find 'im a-straddle the fince.

You never could tell if he'd made up his mind
Though he'd talk and he'd rattle along
If ever ye once pinned 'im down to the p'int
He'd break off to hummin' a song.
The question came up about building a school,
Should it be at Gum Cove or Mt. Quince?
They needed his vote to break up the tie,
He wuz settin' a-straddle the fince.

I remember one mornin' his crops wuz a mess,
The weeds'd come to your knees,
His cotton wuz actually smothered in grass,
The beetles wuz ruinin' his peas;
He wuz out thar plumb worried to death,
The job that he had wuz imminse,
He couldn't decide which crop to work first --
He wuz settin' a-straddle the fince.

When time come to vote on laws or on men
An' you wanted to know how he stood
He'd ramble and scramble but never could tell
Which side would do us most good.
So at last when he died an' they seen he wuz gone,
Like all them ol' fellers has since,
Dad said not to place ol' man Goss in the ground,
Jest set him a-straddle the fince!

They all sort of grinned, they buried him though,
An' the preacher he preached at the grave,
He never said much about Huckaby Goss
Jest talked about souls that's to save.
An' I wuz a boy an' I thought of it then,
An' I've thought of it heap o' times since,
I'll bet ol' man Goss ain't in Heaven or Hell,
He's settin' a-straddle the fince.





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