The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #429 Message #960622
Posted By: MMario
28-May-03 - 01:16 PM
Thread Name: Origins:There Was an Old Soldier / Old Tobacco Box
Subject: Lyr Add: THERE WAS AN OLD SOLDIER (from B Kincaid)
THERE WAS AN OLD SOLDIER
OH, I had a little duck and he had a web foot,
And he built his nest in a mulberry bush,
And he ruffled up his feathers to keep himself warm,
Another little song wouldn't do us any harm.
O, there was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg,
He had no tobacco, but tobacco he could beg;
Another old soldier as sly as a fox,
He always had tobacco in his old tobacco box.
Said the one old soldier, won't you give me a chew?
Said the other old soldier, I'll be danged if I do;
Just save up your pennies and throw away your rocks,
And you'll always have tobacco in your old tobacco box.
Wel the old old soldier was a feelin' very bad,
He says, I'll get even, I will, egad;
Then he goes to a corner, takes a rifle from his peg,
and stabs the other soldier with a splinter from his leg.
O there was an old hen and she had a wooden foot,
and she made her nest by a sycamore root,
and she laid mere eggs than any hen on the farm,
Another wooden foot wouldn't do her any harm.
Well, of all the darn songs I ever heard made
The one I'm a singin' puts them all in the shade;
If you don't like it you can run along hum'
'cause I'm singin' this song for myself, by gum!
Bradley Kincaid - 'Favorite Old-Time Songs and Mountain Ballads' book 2