Give me a board so I can trace on
How high I have gone as a mason,
Said worker on true square cut stone
Unto some knights of good St. John.
Each one of them could trace with ease
The highest Masonic degrees,
Tell us how high then you have gone
They said to worker on cut stone.
Who said to their astonishment
To top of Washington monument,
I solemnly to you declare
And will swear to fact upon the square.
I there stood thirty-three degrees,
While the mercury did freeze,
And none of you will have desire
In masonry for to go higher.