“O—oh, we came here on the train to-day, it was a dandy ride.
Tom sat upon the cowcatcher, but I sat down inside.
The train it was an hour late and we were late as well;
The reason why the train was late the conductor wouldn’t tell.
Sam Craig he met us at the place where we alighted down;
He had a smile upon his face, and so had Mr. Brown!
They put us in an ancient thing, I guess it was a hack;
And I think I’d rather walk than ride whenever I go back!
We met a royal welcome here and many things to eat,
Roast beef and apple pie and such until we couldn’t speak.
The fellows are a dandy lot, the councillors the same,
The Chief likewise, and here’s to him; Mr. Langham is his name.
We played baseball and swam and dived, and then we ate some more,
And when you mention doughnuts I would like to cry ‘encore!’
We like the way you’ve treated us, you’re all in our good books,
But oh, the one we like the best he is the man who cooks!”
Sidney ended with a final strum of the banjo and the audience set up a wild howl of laughter and applause and loudly demanded more. But Sid declared that that was the only song he knew. “Besides,” he said, stretching out and pillowing his head on Tom’s knees, “I’m too full of doughnuts to sing. Somebody else try it.”
“I don’t think any of us could improvise as well as that,” replied the Chief, with a laugh. “I call that pretty clever, fellows.”
“Not bad,” said Tom judicially, “but he got the last line wrong, Mr. Langham. That wasn’t the way I taught it to him.”
“You!” grunted Sidney scathingly, “you couldn’t find a rhyme for ‘lemon’!”
“There isn’t any,” piped up young Chase.
“Oh, yes, there is,” said Tom.
“What?” Sidney demanded.
“The rhyme for ‘lemon’ is ‘Sidney,’” was the sweet response. After they got through chuckling at that bit of wit they sang songs until it was time for prayer.