'For human life is chancy at any kind of trade,
'But most of all, as well you know, when the steers are mad-afraid;
'So you go back to the cattle-boats an' preach 'em as I've said.
'They must quit drinkin' an' swearin', they mustn't knife on a blow,
'They must quit gamblin' their wages, and you must preach it so;
'For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know.'
I didn't want to do it, for I knew what I should get,
An' I wanted to preach Religion, handsome an' out of the wet,
But the Word of the Lord were lain on me, an' I done what I was set.
I have been smit an' bruiséd, as warned would be the case,
An' turned my cheek to the smiter exactly as Scripture says;
But following that, I knocked him down an' led him up to Grace.
