I thought I had a version somewhere: This is from Cox Folk-Songs of the South:

OLD GRIMES

Old Grimes is dead, that good old man,
We ne'er shall see him more;
He used to wear an old gray coat,
All buttoned up before, my boys,
All buttoned up before.

I wish I had a load of wood,
To fence my garden round;
For the neighbours' pigs they do get in
And root up all my ground, my boys,
And root up all my ground.

Our old cat has got so far
She'll neither sing nor pray;
She chased a mouse all round the house
And broke the Sabbath day, my boys,
And broke the Sabbath day.

Somebody stole my banty hen,
I with they'd let her be;
For Saturday she laid two eggs,
And Sunday she laid three, my boys,
And Sunday she laid three.


Cox's notes say: The first stanza will be recognised as belonging to the well-known poem by Albert Gordon Green. The rest is a comic perversion after the fashion of a nursery rhyme.

Communicated by Miss Lily Hagans, Morgantown, Monongalia County, January 2, 1916; obtained from an old lady, Mrs Boyd.


There are plenty of references to the song on the net. It seems to have been recorded by several quartets in the 20s and appeared in several university song books. The Ballad Index Supplement quotes several texts.

I also have a version (1v plus tune) from the Frank C Brown collection of NC songs, and I'll try and post that tomorrow.

I can't find any likely-looking early source, though one Ohio univerity site said it wasn't know there before the 1890s, but that's not really much help.

Mick