“All in good time, my engine,
Steady, steady,
’Til you’re ready,
Learn to know
Before you go.”
Then he said to the engineer, “Now we must give our engine some coal.” So they filled the tender with coal, and then under the boiler the fireman built a fire. Then the fireman began blowing and the coals began glowing. And as he built the fire, the fire said:
“I am fire,
The coal I eat
To make the heat
To turn the stream
Into the steam.”
When the engine felt the sleeping fire wake up and begin to live inside him and turn the water into steam he said eagerly:
“Now I have water,
Now I have coal,
Now do I know
How I should go?”
“All in good time, my engine,
Steady, steady,
’Til you’re ready.
Learn to know
Before you go.”
Then he said to the fireman, “We must oil our engine well.” So they took oil cans with funny long noses and they oiled all the machinery, the piston-rods, the levers, the wheels, everything that moved or went round. And all the time the oil kept saying:
“No creak,
No squeak.”
When the engine felt the oil smoothing all his machinery, he said eagerly: