Fur I felt I couldn’t stop her till the child wuz crushed to death,
When a woman sprang afore me like a sudden streak o’ light,
Caught the boy and twixt the timbers in a second sank from sight.
I jist whis’l’d all the brakes on. An’ we worked with might an’ main
Till the fire flew from the drivers, but we couldn’t stop the train,
An’ it rumbled on above her. How she screamed ez we rolled by
An’ the river roared below us—I shall hear her till I die!
Then we stop’t; the sun was shinin’; I ran back along the ridge
An’ I found her—dead? No! livin’! She wuz hangin’ to the bridge
Wher she drop’t down thro’ the cross-ties with one arm about a sill