ARKANSAS TRAVELER
(variously attributed to David Stevens, Col. Sandford Faulkner, or Jose Tasso, a fiddler)
Oh, once upon a time in Arkansas
A traveler was passing by that day
The traveler replied, That's all quite true,
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
An old man sat by his little cabin door
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear
A jolly old reel that he played by ear.
It was raining hard but the fiddler didn't care,
As he sawed away at the popular air
Tho' his rooftree leaked like a waterfall
That didn't seem to bother the man at all.
And stopped to hear him practicing away
Tho' his cabin was a float and his feet were wet
Still the old man didn't seem to fret.
The traveler said, Now the way it looks to me
You'd better mend your roof, said he.
But the old man kept a-practicing away,
I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day.
But this, I think, is the thing for you to do:
Get busy on a day that's fair and bright
And patch the old roof till she's good and tight.
But the old man kept on playing at his reel,
And he tapped the ground with his leathery heel,
Get along, said he, for you give me a pain,
My cabin doesn't leak when it doesn't rain.