Drillin

by James McLaughlin

Ol’ John B.Henry spent of his days drillin holes
by hittin thick steel spikes into the rock with his
faithful shaker, crouchin so close and a turnin t
he drill with a God almighty blow. There wasno
man in the country could match him Ol’ John B
Henry though many a man tried and many a ma
n failed. Well the new railroad was a movin  alo
ng real quick thanks mainly to the man they  cal
led  Ol’ John B Henry.But loomin right smack i
n its path was a right mighty enemy the Big Ben
d Mountain. Now the big bosses at C and O Rai
lroad decided that they couldn’t go round the m
ile and a quarter thick mountain. No sir, the goo
d men of the C and O were going to go right thr
ough it a drillin out the mountain. A thousandm
en would lose their lives before the great enemy
was conquered. It took three long years, and bef
ore it was done the ground outside the mountain
was filled with makeshift sandy graves. Thenew
tunnels were filled with smoke and dust.Ya cou
ldn’t see no-how and could hardly breath. But O
l’ John B Henry, he worked tirelessly, drillinwit
h a 14-pound hammer, and going 10 to 12 feetin
one workin day. No one else could match him.T
hen one day a salesman came along to the camp.
He had a steam hammer powered drill andclaim
it could out-drill any man. Well they set up a co
ntest then and there between Ol’ John B Henrya
nd that there drill. The foreman ran that new fan
gled steam drill. John Henry, he just pulledout 2
20 pound hammers, one in each hand. They drill
ed and drilled dust a risin everywhere. The  men
were howlin and cheerin. At the end of the 35 m
inutes Ol’ John B Henry had drilled two seven f
oot holes a total of fourteen feet, while the   stea
m drill had only drilled one nine-foot-hole. Ol’J
ohn B Henry held up his hammer in triumph!  T
men shouted and cheered. The noise was so  lou
d, it took a moment for the men to realize that O
l’ John B Henry was totterin. Exhausted the mig
hty man crashed to the ground, the hammers rol
lin from his grasp. The crowd went silent as the
foreman rushed to his side. But it was too lateA
blood vessel had burst in his brain. The greatest
driller in the C and O was dead. Some folks say
the Ol’ John B Henry’s likeness is carved righti
nto the rock inside the Big Bend Tunnel. And if
you walk to the edge of the blackness of the tun
nel, sometimes you can hear the sound of two 2
0-pound hammers drillin and a drillin their way
to victory in the    darkness     over the  machine

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~ This piece was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 and was filed under Poetry, Writing. You can make comments on it below. ~