The following text is per by Richard Dyer-Bennett in his Song Book. He learned it in New England but cannot remember the source. It's only marginally different from the above and I give the whole thing just to be picky.
This English folk song has also been collected in Manitoba, Kentucky, Missousi, Virginia, etc and is included in Sharp (in Appalachia "The Foolish Boy", #217 and in England), Fowke, Richard Chase, Randolph, Brown (North Carolina Folklore). Randolph-Legman includes a wide-spread bawdy version, "I went to the River" as #15.
It has been sound-recorded by many, including Oscar Brand, Penny(?) Seeger, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Ed McCurdy, Cyril Tawney (Children's Songs of Devon & Cornwall), Paul Clayton and a number of source singers. Seems Jean Ritchie must have but I have no record of it.
As a folk tale (often generically known as "Trading Away One's Fortune,") it has been collected by Hans Christian Andersen (Danmark), Asbjørnsen and Moe (Norway) and the Grimm Brothers (Germany). (See D. L. Ashliman.)
I am unable to find any text in DigTrad besides "WIM WAM WADDLES," though.
Ballad Index:
Swapping Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The Swapping Boy (sets out for London to get a wife. He swaps wife, or the wheelbarrow he took her home in, for a) horse, which he swaps for a cow, and so forth, for a cheaper animal each time, until he ends with a mole which "went straight to its hole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Britain(England) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Eddy 93, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 256, "Went to the River" (1 text, 1 tune, a much degraded form with a different chorus and some floating verses)
BrownII 196, "Swapping Songs" (4 text plus 2 excerpts, but "E" and "F" are "Hush Little Baby"; the "C" excerpt is unidentifiable from the description)
BrownIII 131, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, with only the first verses about fetching the wife from London)
JHCoxIIB, #19A-B, pp. 166-169, "The Foolish Boy," "Johnny Bobeens" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 312, "Wim-Wam-Waddles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway II, p. 10, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire, pp. 78-79, "The Swapping Song" (1 text)
SharpAp 217, "The Foolish Boy" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 72, "The Swapping Song (The Foolish Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 1, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 243, "Down by the Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase, pp. 174-175, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 44-45, "Wing Wang Waddle" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 70-71, "Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H732, p. 57, "My Grandfather Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 71, "When I was a little boy I lived by myself" (2 texts); 156, "My father he died, but I can't tell you how" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #7, pp. 29-30, "(When I was a little boy)"; #115, p. 96, "(My father he died, but I can't tell you how)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 23, "(His father died)" (1 short text); 163, "O, when I was a wee thing" (1 short text, with only the verses about "When I was a wee thing" and the fetching home of a wife in a wheelbarrow)
ST E093 (Full)
Roud #469
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "The Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299, 1931); as the "Three Georgia Crackers," "Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Columbia 15653-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on CrowTold01)
Harry Greening & chorus of Dorsetshire Mummers, "The Foolish Boy" (on FSB10)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Swapping Song" (Champion 15466 [as Dan Hughey]/Silvertone 5188/Supertone 9209, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Dog"
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (plot)
cf. "Old John Wallis" (lyrics)
Notes: Eddy writes of this song, "Most texts are like the above in blending two separate songs, 'When I Was a Little Boy' and 'Swapping Song.' The first story, based, in all likelihood, upon Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 in England, continues through four stanzas."
That two songs are combined here is very likely; Kennedy's version and others (including versions back to Gammer Gurton's Garland) omit the trip to London to fetch a wife, while we find a youth setting out for London to find a wife as a separate item in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II, of c. 1744. But whether this should be tied to the Kentish rebellion of 1381 can be questioned. - RBW
Perhaps "The Swapping Boy" should be split between the Opie-Oxford2 71/Eddy/BrownIII 131 ("When I was a little boy I lived by myself") songs and the Opie-Oxford2 156/Henry H732("My father he died, but I can't tell you how") songs. The description for "My Father Died" might be: Singer inherits his grandfather's horses. He sells the horses to buy a cow and sells and buys the cow, a calf, a pig, a dog, and a cat that runs off after a rat. "My grandfather left me all he did own, And I don't know how it is, but I'm here by my lone." The end of Opie-Oxford2 156 is more disastrous: "I sold my cat and bought me a mouse, But she fired her tail and burnt down my house." - BS
In the light of the above, I suppose I should separate these two songs -- but the result would be an even worse mess than lumping them, because the combination clearly exists as a song in its own right. Since it is possible that it's one song that split, and not two that coalesced, I'm keeping them together until we can find some clearer evidence of the history. With full acknowledgement that there are two highly independent parts. - RBW
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I haven't yet seen any other version with D-B's last two verses but this is the first suggestion I've heard that added his own verses to songs without saying so. I know one, anyway, where he does say so.
It's a great children's song and Dyer-Bennet's "moral" at the end doesn'd seem to bother them at all.
"The Swapping Song"
When I was a bachelor, I lived by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I had, I kept upon the shelf.
Chorus:
To my wing wong waddle, my john fall faddle,
My bullfrog saddle, to my long way home.
But the rats and the mice, they led me such a life
I went into London town to get myself a wife.
But the roads were so muddy and the lanes were so narrow
That I had to bring her home in an old wheelbarrow.
So I swapped my wife and I got me a horse,
And then I rode from crose to crose.
Then I swapped my horse and I got me a cow,
And in that trade I just learned how.
Then I swapped my cow and I got me a calf,
And in that trade I just lost half.
Then I swapped my calf and I got me a pig;
It wasn't worth much 'cause it wasn't very big.
Then I swapped my pig and I got me a dog
And in that trade I lost one hog.
Then I swapped my dog and I got me a cat
And then, b'God, I was stuck with that.
Now me and my cat, we live in the house;
Never see a rat and we never see a mouse.
So if the rats and the mice ever lead you such a life,
Remember that a pussy cat is better than a wife.
===
Many versions include a fourth verse similar to this. It explains why he swaps his wife in the first place.
The wheelbarrow broke and we all had a fall
Down came wheelbarrow, wife, and all.