Rick is correct. The original song was a collaboration between Earl Robinson and E. Y. Harburg, with Robinson responsible for the music and Harburg responsible for the words. And their song appears in Reprints fron SING OUT, Vol. 7-12, pp.110-111. In the intro it is mentioned that Leadbelly was enthusistic about the song and sang it constantly, probably changing some of the words in the process. I'm too tired to type in the ORIGINAL words tonight but I'll post them tomorrow. They do help make more sense of what has been posted above.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble