The old clerk house the old clerk house sat down by the water cattails grew through the cracks in the floor we always went home with silvers in our fingers from brushing up against the old grey boards we ran in a pack in the summer heat blackball lips and scratched up knees and there wasn't a lot we didn't dare to believe Chorus: the old clerk house sat down by the water filled us with the promise of buried bones the old clerk house rising up from the thistle hovered above us like a standing stone on the second floor there was a sewing machine an old black treadle model 15 mary jane murphy said that's how she died mrs. clerk was just a young bride patching up her quilt when the needle took her sleeve sewed her up her arm till her heart was pierced and mr. clerk he died of grief Chorus if we had to go by when the sun was down we held our breath and we ran like hell mary jane murphy said if you breathe you suck in the ghost and your heart will freeze my brother said he saw mrs. clerk at the window a silhouette in the moonlight breeze he swore he heard the sound of the demon treadle and the lonely echo of her dying screams Chorus i wasn't around when they tore it down they pulled up the floor and the cattails drowned mary jane murphy said it was high time the old eyesore wasn't worth a dime i wonder what they did with the sewing machine the old black treadle model 15 and when those walls came down was her spirit set free