The Ox

Terry Kelleher (1999)

In Ithaca, we have an annual 12^th night celebration, where eat deserts, crown our annual Monarch of Misrule, and mostly, we tell stories. This song is based on a story told by Phil Syphrit, from his days working as a farmhand. The names have been changed to protect the reputations of the ox.

Hiram and I went cutting ice, and quite a load we made.
Some ninety blocks stacked on the ice, before the sun did fade.
We slept like logs that night, then rose to work once more,
And hitched the oxen to the sled, to haul the ice to store.

/C - F G/F C - G/C - F G/F C G C/

Back the pond and on the ice, Hiram led the team.
The hole we'd cut the day before had frozen once again.
But thin it was, and treacherous, froze only overnight.
And so we led the ox and sled on safely to the right.

I'd hardly started load when the ox, I guess, got bored,
And starting walking to the left, straight toward the hole we'd scored.
I grabbed at Billy, pulling hard, to drive them from the brink,
But Bobby's hoof had broken through, he crashed in to the drink

Quick as a blink I jumped atop. these raging ox to loose the stocks.
That Bobby in the cold water swimming would not pull Billy and the sled in with him.
Hiram ran back to the farmhouse then, to get our boss, Rueben, and the rest of the men.
They came back with horses, rope and a harness, to save Bobby's life from an end in that coldness.

/Am Em F G/ / / /

Says Rueben,
"If from the water this great beast we'll pull we need a rope 'round the girth of this bull.
And so it hauls up, and lifts him from death, It must be tied under the poor creatures chest.
We knew in an instant just what was required, that someone need jump in that freezing cold water.
I dropped my head in shame and said nothing, but Hiram speaks up, "I've always liked swimming".

/C F G FC//Am Em F G//

Shedding boots, coat, gloves and hat, Hiram dives in quick as that.
Then up he comes and chokes for breath, the icy cold water, clutching his chest.
Down again, he disappears, and for his life we all feared.
Then up once more and gasps, "Its tied". We pulled him up and I took the line.

/C F G FC//Am Em F G/Am EmG F GC/

The horses then were put to task, and pulled poor Bobby out at last.
Though out of the water he was freezing, he stood there still, barely breathing.
Then Rueben says, "His situation is dire. Take him to the kitchen, to warm by the fire.

/C F G FC//Am Em F G/

So back to the farmhouse at a frozen ox pace, and through the back door to the great fireplace.
Thee in the glow of a fire so grand, we thawed both the ox and the frozen farm hand.
We fed Bobby warm oats with molasses and honey, to help take the chill from the poor creatures tummy.
And Hiram sat down in his long johns, still soggy, contented himself with a hot whiskey toddy.

/C F G FC///Am Em F GC/

Like a mother stays beside her sick child, I stayed by that ox and I tended the fire.
He's back in the barn, Hiram's all thawed, and we're still on the hire.
But Rueben says, next winter, and this he does expound.
He won't be sending Hiram and I, to cut ice from the pond.

/C - F G/F C - G/C - F G/F C G C/

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