that something's coming from the South

They think it is a raid

Now I will tell you what it is

If you will just keep cool

It's got long ears and a long sleek tail

They think it's Shelby's mule !

Oh once I went to see old abe

and found him in a rage

Because THIS MULE HAD STARTED north

and HAD JUST CROSSED THE Osage

indeed HIS ANGER KNEW NO BOUNDS

said I,  SIR PRAY KEEP COOL

I CAN'T SAID, SAID HE, I've LOST SO MUCH

by Shelby's LONG-EARED MULE

Old "Rosey" got a long dispatch

which came from 'way down east

To take thirty thousand men

and try to catch the beast

To obey orders he was bound

But he called old Abe a fool

For he had no halter strong enough

To hold Joe Shelby's mule

Some say our state did not secede

But let me tell you now

That if she did or if she didn't

We'll have her anyhow

Let us alone, we'll do the same

That is the Southern rule

If that won't do we'll pack the state

Down South on Shelby's mule

Mules have their own time clock

The mule has an amazing ability to tell time. When worked on a regular basis he can tell break time, feed time or quitting time within a few minutes, if these breaks take place the same time on a daily routine.  This is one of many a story showing how this characteristic of mules was used to one farmers advantage.

The farmers children attended a country school. He furnished them with a gentle horse and a buggy for them and the neighbors children to ride back and forth to school each day. The children complained about the spinster teacher holding classes late into the noon hour, Until one day the farmer told them that he could take care of that problem. So he exchanged the horse for one of his old dependable mules. Straight away at noon time the mule would begin to hee-haw. The mule would get hee-hawing so loud and so long that the teacher would dismiss classes. From then on, when ever the teacher's time would lag the mule would return to school.

source; The Missouri Mule: his origin and times

On mules we find

On mules we find two legs behind,

And two we find before

We stand behind before we find

What the two behind are for

When we're behind the two behind

We find what they be for

So stand before the two behind

and behind the two before