Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 224 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "When Tubman K. Hedrick, poet and philosopher, was a water boy on a building construction job in a Texas town, he heard blacks, going up a ladder with hods [a builders V-shaped open trough of mortar on a pole, used for carrying bricks and building supplies], chanting "Cap'n, I believe" to the bricklayers above who replied as our text indicates. It reminds us of one Pat who told one Mike, ”All I do is carry the bricks up the ladder the man on top does all the work."
Sandburg is the only reference listed in The Traditional Ballad Index.
Day 224 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "When Tubman K. Hedrick, poet and philosopher, was a water boy on a building construction job in a Texas town, he heard blacks, going up a ladder with hods [a builders V-shaped open trough of mortar on a pole, used for carrying bricks and building supplies], chanting "Cap'n, I believe" to the bricklayers above who replied as our text indicates. It reminds us of one Pat who told one Mike, ”All I do is carry the bricks up the ladder the man on top does all the work."
Sandburg is the only reference listed in The Traditional Ballad Index.
