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    Leather Leggin's
    by Berton Braley

    Whin you want to build a railroad through the jungle or the veldt
        Where there's niver anybody bin before,
    Why you call on Leather Leggin's, an' he hitches up his belt
        An' he takes it as his ordinary chore
    To go slashin' through the forests, where the monkeys chatter shrill,
        An' the lazy snakes are hissin' down below,
    Or to drag a chain an' transit over gulch and grassy hill,
        As he marks the route the right-av-way will go!

    He's a nervy, wiry divil, with his notebook an' his livil,
        An' he dosen't seem to know the name av fear,
    He's a sort av scout av progress, on the payroll as a civil--
    (Though he ain't so civil, if you say it on the livil!)
        On the payroll as a Civil Engineer!

    When you need to dam a river, or to turn it upside down,
        Or to tunnel underneath it in the mud,
    Or to bore an' blast a subway through the innards av a town,
        Or to blow aside a mountain with a thud;
    When you want to bridge a canyon where there ain't no place to cling,
        An' the cliffs is steep an' smoother than a wall,
    Why, you call on Leather Leggin's an he does that little thing,
        An' then comes around an' asks you, "Is that all?"

    Oh, he always has a fire in his old an' blackened briar
        An' he tackles any job that may appear,
    An' he does it on the livil, this here divil of a civil--
    (Though he ain't so very civil, if you put it on the livil!)
        This here divil av a Civil Engineer!

    Now the bankers down in Wall Street gits the profits whin it's done,
        While us heavy-futted diggers gits the can,
    But we lifts our hats respectful to the Ingineer, my son,
        For that feller, Leather Leggin's, is a Man!

    Yes, he takes a heap o' chances, and he works like Bill Hell,
        An his job is neither peaceable or tame,
    But you bet he knows his business an' he does it might well,
        An' I want to give him credit for the same!

    He is plucky--on the livil--and you'll niver hear him snivel,
        Though fate does her best to put him in the clear,
    He's the Grit that niver flinches--on the payroll as a Civil,
    (For he's sometimes pretty civil, an' he always on the livil!)
        On the payroll as a Civil Engineer!

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