Miss Ferris

John Hartford

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Now F#I had a teacher when BI went to school,

She loved the river, and she taF#ught about it too.

I'se a Bpretty bad boy, but she cF#alled my bluff,

With her gF#reat big collection of stBeamboat stuff. Oh, yF#eah!

She had log-books and bells and the things like that,

And she knew the old captains and where they were at.

She rode the Alabama and the Gordon C. Green,

As the Cape Girardeau, she was later renamed, Uh-huh.

But her vBery favorite, as you all know,

Was the GoF#lden Eagle, Captain Buck's old boat.

ThBis old stern wheeler sank and went to heaven,

When F#I was in the fourth grade, in nC#ineteen forty-seven, Uh-huh!

Well, now, fast people in St. Louis society

A-takin' a trip on the Mississippi

Sleepin' in their bunks after an after-dinner drink

They didn't think the boat would sink. Oh, no!

Well, I know Captain Buck was a very sad man

When that old wooden hull went into the sand

And Miss Ferris was sad for sure

But immediately, her mind went to work. Oh, yeah!

Well, she did some politicking that was tricky and hard

And she got the pilot house for the schoolhouse yard

And so, instead of studying, I became a dreamer

Dreaming 'bout boats and the Mississippi River. Uh-huh.

I had to work real hard to get my school work done

Cause you could not fool Miss Ferris none;

And, if I went to sleep or I were not supposed to talk

Oh, she was a dead shot with a little piece of chalk. Uh-huh!{soc}

Oh me, oh my, how the time does fly.

Time and the river keep a-rollin' on by.

Now, I am not a student and she is not a teacher

But, we both still love the Mississippi River. Uh, huh.

Well, I went to see her this Christmas last.

We took a little trip back through the past.

On the easy rocker we looked at pictures

And we dreamed our dreams of the Mississippi River. Uh-huh!