HALF WAY DOIN'S

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1607, 21 October 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

HALF WAY DOIN'S

Bclubbed fellow travelers— ln holdin' foifch today. I doesn't quote no special verse for what I has to say. De sermon will be berry short, and dis hero am de tex' ; Dat half-way doin's ain't no 'count for dis woiT or de nex'. Dis worl' dat wo's a-libbin in is like a cotton-row, "Whar obery cullud gentleman has got his line to hoe ; And ebery time a lazy nigger stops to take a nap, Do grass keeps on a-giowin' for to sniudder up his crap. Whon mosos led do Jews aciost do watera ob do sea. Dey had to keep a-goin 1 , jes' as fas' as fas' could bo; Do you s'pose dat dcy could ebber hab succeeded in deir wibh, And reached de Promised Land at last— if cloy had stopped to fish ? My Men's, dar was a gaiden once, whar Adam libbed wid Eve, Wid no one 'round to bodder dem, no neighbors for to thieve ; i And ebery clay was Christmas, and dey got dcir rations free, And eberyting belonged to dem except an apple tree. You all know 'bout de story — how de snake come snoopin' 'roun' — A stump-tail rusty moccasin, a crawlin' on do groun' — ' tlow Eve and Adam ale do fiuit, and went and hid deir face, Till de angel obcrsccr ho come and drove 'em off * de place. Now s'poso dat man and 'ooman hadn't 'tempted for to shirk, . But had gone about doir gardonin', and 'tended to deir work : Dey wouldn't hab been loafin' whar dey had no business to, And de debbil nebber'd got a chance to tell 'em what to do. No half-way doin's, bredren. It'll nebber do, I , say. Go at your task and finish it, and den's de time to play — • For eben if de crap is good, de rain '11 Bpoil de bolls, Unless you keep a pickin' in de garden ob your souls. / ' « Keep a plowin' and a hoein', and a scrapin' bb de rows, - / And when de ginnin's ober you canp^y up what you owes ; \ But if you quits a-workiu' ebery time de^sun is hot. De Sheriff's gwino to lobby upon eberyting you's got. ' Whateber 'tis you's diibin' at, be shore and dribe 1 it ihrongh, ■ ' >, And don't let'nuffin' stop you, hut do what yoa'ul gwine to do ; ' < 1 1 ( For when you sees a niggei? foolin', den, as shore'B' , you're born, ' , v^ /, , „ ~ You's gwine to see him comip'-vpufe do small endow ,dohorh. ' ' K \/- > , I thanks you for do 'tentionjou nfls gib dis afternoon — ' " "> f " , Si'sier' Williams will 'oblige, u/ by a raisin' ob a- • tune — „; '/)} ' f .' ''! I see dat . Brother Johnson's '.iboufc to pass aroun< de hat — ' «.' « */•' <■ ' ' And don't let's sto)fi<p6'Aia.U- way doin' when it * comes to dat. t * x , ■ ' , ,ii, , ,» — Inom MusseU. ,

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