The Ghost that Jim Saw

Why, as to that, said the engineer,     Ghosts aint things we are apt to fear;     Spirits dont fool with levers much,     And throttle-valves dont take to such;     And as for Jim,     What happened to him     Was one half fact, and tother half whim!     Running one night on the line, he saw     A house as plain as the moral law     Just by the moonlit bank, and thence     Came a drunken man with no more sense     Than to drop on the rail     Flat as a flail,     As Jim drove by with the midnight mail.     Down went the patents steam reversed.     Too late! for there came a thud. Jim cursed     As the fireman, there in the cab with him,     Kinder stared in the face of Jim,     And says, What now?     Says Jim, What now!     Ive just run over a man, thats how!     The fireman stared at Jim. They ran     Back, but they never found house nor man,     Nary a shadow within a mile.     Jim turned pale, but he tried to smile,     Then on he tore     Ten mile or more,     In quicker time than hed made afore.     Would you believe it! the very next night     Up rose that house in the moonlight white,     Out comes the chap and drops as before,     Down goes the brake and the rest encore;     And so, in fact,     Each night that act     Occurred, till folks swore Jim was cracked.     Humph! let me see; its a year now, most,     That I met Jim, East, and says, Hows your ghost?     Gone, says Jim; and more, its plain     That ghost dont trouble me again.     I thought I shook     That ghost when I took     A place on an Eastern line, but look!     What should I meet, the first trip out,     But the very house we talked about,     And the selfsame man! Well, says I, I guess     Its time to stop this yer foolishness.     So I crammed on steam,     When there came a scream     From my fireman, that jest broke my dream:     Youve killed somebody! Says I, Not much!     Ive been thar often, and thar aint no such,     And now Ill prove it! Back we ran,     And darn my skin! but thar was a man     On the rail, dead,     Smashed in the head!     Now I call that meanness! Thats all Jim said.