California Bloomer
[AIR—Lucy Long.]

Miss Ella she is twenty-nine,
Has taken two degrees,
And torn her shirt-tail off behind.
So she can show her knees.

Chorus:
So take your time, Miss Ella, take your time, Miss Ella,do,
And I will rock the cradle, give the oro all to you.

Miss Ella is a gallus nag,
Miss Ella she is neat,
Her eyes look like a saffron bag,
And, Lord, what awful feet!
So take your time, etc.

I saw Miss Ella on the Platte
Wher she got alkalied,
Her jackass he was rolling fat,
And straddle she would ride.
So take your time, etc.

She's from Lumpkin County, Georgia,
I know her like a book;
I used to see her wash her feet
In Johnson's saw-mill brook
So take your time, etc.

Miss Ella has a claim, they say,
She works it all the while;
She creviced round the other day,
Panned out a little pile.
So take your time, etc.

She'll get it all after awhile,
If patiently she waits;
I'll leave her when I make a pile
And vamose for the States.
So take your time, etc.

Put's Original California Songster, p. 34





Lyrics and tune in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, p. 125

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Click to play (pdmusic.org)

[Tune notes by Artful Codger]
"Miss Lucy Long" is a blackface minstrel song from ca. 1842, authorship apparently unknown.
Sheet music [PDF] in the Lester S. Levy Collection.
Mudcat thread
Wikipedia entry

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