and the shadow of the mill
as they rattled down the causeway
We watched behind the windows,
they didn't give a glance
Nothing could detain them
as they ran like the wind
To beat their old neighbours
There were farmers and their wives,
shepherds with their collies
that could cut you to the bone
There were carters, weavers,
Then the quarrymen stepped forward,
shook the frost from their beers
pulled a pint of tailor's ale
To drink her aunt's brown
Except for some Methodists
who wouldn't join the fun
They'd never seen the likes before,
the dregs of all humanity
Come on, it could have been no worse,
they wondered why they'd come
So they all took out their Bibles,
closed their eyes in meditation
Said a little prayer for the
God send us down from the boat
They were damned if they were joining
Like the Red Sea once had parted,
but whiskers and a nightshirt
Was the ruler of the uni verse,
He said, Dance, you boogers, dance,
or you'll never get to heaven
The Methodists were doubtful,
but they couldn't take the chance
So they put their sternest faces on,
And went bravely, like martyrs,
especially the Methodists
through their Bibles in the air
Then they stripped off their clothes,
Rejoicing that their bodies
Then the pipers and the drummers
and the riflemen and gunners
Who'd last been seen a -waltzing
through the red fields of France
fired a thousand gun salutes
For their other companions in last dance
In the morning they were gone,
and some bottles on a wall
Some said they'd caught the early train
To Bradford or to Manchester
if they'd been there at all
on a hill above the reservoir
The last stragglers waved
as they saw me in the distance
they slip beneath the water
the dream of the last dance
4.7
