Little Johnny's Snakebite

When we first com’d out here, we all
Was awful scared o’ snakes,
Cause Uncle Si he set aroun’
‘N’ kep’ a tellin’ fakes,
‘Bout great big rattlers that’d bite
‘N’ reptil’s thet crawled ‘roun’,
Till we wuz all afraid almos’
To walk upon the groun’.
One day I was awadin’ roun’
Barefooted in the grass,
Where it jes’ growed so awful thick
Thet I could hardly pass,
When Zip! A sumthin’ struck me,
Right on my ankle there,
‘N’ I jes’ give ‘n awful yell
‘N’ jumped up in the air.
‘N’ when I lit I started fer
The house my level bes’,
‘N’ ma she’d heerd me yell ‘n’ she
Was mighty quick to guess,
What it was all about, ‘n’ ‘fore
She laid me on the bed,
She bed my foot in turpentine
‘N’ camphor on my head.
‘N’ “Sis” she got a bluein’ bottle
Full o’ lard ‘n’ oil,
‘N’ popped it down into my throat
Jes’ hot enough t’ boil.
‘N’ pa he windbroke our old Ned
A goin’ after Doc,
I guess our fam’ly ev’ry one
Got sumpthin’ uv a shock.
‘N’ when the doctor come he looked
Et wot was left o’ me,
‘N’ give another dose o’ stuff
That tasted! Hully Gee!
D’y ever hav the ague?
‘N’ hev t’ take some stuff
To keep from dyin’? Ef ye did
Ye know et it was tough.
But medicine for ague
Is sugar plums to wot
He made me swaller ‘n’ keep down—
You bet I ain’t fergot.
‘N’ I jes’ laid there scairt to death,
A wondrin’ if I’d die,
‘Nd swallerin ev’rything they brought,
When pa ‘n’ Uncle Si
They ‘lowed the medicine was workin
Awful good ‘n’ said
They’d never rest until that orful
Rattlesnake was dead.
‘N’ so they went outside to fin’
The rattlesnake, ‘n’ ‘fore
They’d been out there two minutes, we
Heerd both of ’em jes’ roar.
‘N’ ma she rushed out fer to see
‘N’ Uncle Si he said:
“I guess ye better tell that boy
To get right out of bed,
Ther’ ain’t a blame thing wrong ‘ith him,
It was a settin’ hen
Thet pecked him on the ankle there.”
‘N’ then they roared again.