Ezra House by James Whitcomb Riley — Read

[These lines was writ, in ruther high sperits, jest at the close of / what's called the Anti Bellum Days, and more to be a-foolin' than / anything else, -- though they is more er less facts in it. But some of / the boys, at the time we was all a-singin' it, fer Ezry's benefit, to / the old tune of "The Oak and the Ash and the Bonny Willer Tree," got it / struck off in the weekly, without leave er lisence of mine; and so / sence they's allus some of 'em left to rigg me about it yit, I might as / well claim the thing right here and now, so here goes. I give it jest / as it appeared, fixed up and grammatisized consider'ble, as the editer / told me he took the liburty of doin', in that sturling old home paper / THE ADVANCE -- as sound a paper yit to-day and as stanch and abul as / you'll find in a hunderd.]

Come listen, good people, while a story I do tell, / Of the sad fate of one which I knew so passing well; / He enlisted at McCordsville, to battle in the South, / And protect his country's union; his name was Ezra House.