Borrowing goes on in song writing all the time. Compare Foster's "Ring, ring the banjo" with the much later song from the Wizzard of Oz which I think is named, "The Merry Old Land of Oz". They are pretty close in places. I once wrote a tune to R. L. Stevenson's poem, "The Friendly Cow", for my children. Years later, I was walking down the hall at my office not thinking about anything in particular, a common state of my mind, when it struk me that the tune was almost the same as the hymn tune, ST PETER, to which the words "In Christ there is not East or West --" and "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds --" are sung and which I have known all my life. I also wrote a tune to R.L. Stevenson's poem, "Dark brown is the river", at the same time. Some day it may come to me where I actually got that tune. It will really make me sad because I truly love it and am proud of it. - Philip Hudson