Classic Poem

" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " An' a mountain-bluff
Is moved by the shovel's song;
" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " Oh, the grade is rough
A liftin' the landscape along!

We are ants upon a mountain, but we're leavin' of our dent,
An' our teeth-marks bitin' scenery they will show the way we went;
We're a liftin' half creation, an' we're changin' it around,
Just to suit our playful purpose when we're diggin' in the ground.

" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " Oh, the grade is rough,
An' the way to the sea is long;
" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " an' the engines puff
In tune to the shovel's song!

We're a shiftin' miles like inches, and we grab a forest here
Just to switch it over yonder so's to leave an angle clear;
We 're a pushin' leagues o' swamps aside so's we can hurry by —
An' if we had to do it we would probably switch the sky!

" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " Oh, it's hard enough
When you 're changin' a job gone wrong;
" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " an' there's no rebuff
To the shovel a singin' its song!

You hears it in the mornin' an' you hears it late at night —
It's our battery keepin' action with support o' dynamite;
Oh, you gets it for your dinner, an' the scenery skips along
In a movin' panorama to the chargin' shovel's song!

" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " an' it grabs the scruff
Of a hill an' boosts it along;
" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " Oh, the grade is rough,
But it gives to the shovel's song!

This is a fight that's fightin', an' the battle's to the death;
There ain't no stoppin' here to rest or even catch your breath;
You ain't no noble hero, an' you leave no gallant name —
You're a fightin' Nature's army, an' it ain't no easy game!

" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " Oh, the grade is rough,
An' the way to the end is long,
" Chuff! chuff! chuff! " an' the engines puff
As we lift the landscape along!