Butch" Weldy

After I got religion and steadied down         They gave me a job in the canning works,         And every morning I had to fill         The tank in the yard with gasoline,         That fed the blow-fires in the sheds         To heat the soldering irons.         And I mounted a rickety ladder to do it,         Carrying buckets full of the stuff.         One morning, as I stood there pouring,         The air grew still and seemed to heave,         And I shot up as the tank exploded,         And down I came with both legs broken,         And my eyes burned crisp as a couple of eggs.         For someone left a blow - fire going,         And something sucked the flame in the tank.         The Circuit Judge said whoever did it         Was a fellow-servant of mine, and so         Old Rhodes' son didn't have to pay me.         And I sat on the witness stand as blind         As lack the Fiddler, saying over and over,         "I didn't know him at all."