Crossing No. 9

Down on the Southern Railroad line on a drowsy August day
Came a man from across the tracks and stopped our childish play
"Boys don't you raise no cain today", I remember the words he said
Fanny Wall Raven's sick, you know
With a bad pain in her head

Well he said, "We told that engineer that pulls Old Forty-One
Not to blow his whistle loud on the morning mail run
And the fast express from Birmingham that's always just on time
She won't blow the whistle, folks
At Crossing Number Nine"

Well August day soon turned to fall and a chill was in the air
The preachers came and the kinfolks went and friends was everywhere
Then one day they broke the news that tore hard at my mind
Fanny Wall Raven's gone away
From Crossing Number Nine

Way back home in Sulphur Springs, the winter's coming hard
The Georgia wind is a-blowing shrill across the section yard
The snow is falling cold and white on the Southern Railroad line
And the trains they don't blow no more
For Crossing Number Nine