Interestinly enough (some might say strangely enough) it seems that "Massa Of The Sheepfold", which I called "Master Of The Sheepfold" was originally poem called "De Sheepfol'" by Sarah Pratt McLean Greene (born: 1856 in Connecticut --- died: 1935 in Massachusetts

Here's her poem:

De massa ob de sheepfol'
Dat guards de sheepfol' bin
L:ook out on de gloomerin' meadows
Wha'r de long night rain begin
So he call to de hirelin' shepa'd
"Is my sheep, is dey all come in?
Mu sheep, is dey all come in?"

Oh den says de hirelin' sheppa'd
De's some de's blackand thin,
And some dey's po' old weddahs,
Dat can't come home again.
Dey's some black sheep and ol' weddahs,
But de res' dey's all brung in."

(It just went on like this, folks. You might can see now why I changed it from even the slight dialect that Bill kept in his singin' of it when I sang it as----------)

Oh, the master guards the sheepfold bin,
And he wants to know is my sheep brung in,
And he's calling, calling,
Calling softly, softly calling,
Fot them all to come gathering in.

Art Thieme