Once upon a time a farmer sent his son

[Shiroikage]

With a horse to graze upon the mountainside
He fell asleep and when he woke the horse was gone
He came back without it and the neighbours said
Oh what bad luck
The farmer said
How do you know
How do you know
How do you know

The very next day the farmer sent his son
Back to the mountain to seek his runaway
He found the horse and seven other wild ones
Took them all home and the neighbours said
Oh what good luck
The farmer said
How do you know
How do you know
How do you know

The very next day the farmer sent his son
To the wild horses that needed to be tamed
The first one he climbed on threw him down on the ground
It broke his arm and the neighbours said
Oh what bad luck
The farmer said
How do you know
How do you know
How do you know

The very next day war was declared
And the army men came through the countryside
Looking for soldiers but they couldn't take anyone
With a broken arm and the neighbours said
Oh what good luck
The farmer said
How do you know
How do you know
How do you know

[Mertron]

The Dying Cowboy

"O bury me not on the lone prairie."
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of the youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day.

He had wasted and pined 'til o'er his brow
Death's shades were slowly gathering now
He thought of home and loved ones nigh,
As the cowboys gathered to see him die.

"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where coyotes howl and the wind blows free
In a narrow grave just six by three—
O bury me not on the lone prairie"

"It matters not, I've been told,
Where the body lies when the heart grows cold
Yet grant, o grant, this wish to me
O bury me not on the lone prairie."

"I've always wished to be laid when I died
In a little churchyard on the green hillside
By my father's grave, there let me be,
O bury me not on the lone prairie."

"I wish to lie where a mother's prayer
And a sister's tear will mingle there.
Where friends can come and weep o'er me.
O bury me not on the lone prairie."

"For there's another whose tears will shed.
For the one who lies in a prairie bed.
It breaks me heart to think of her now,
She has curled these locks, she has kissed this brow."

"O bury me not..." And his voice failed there.
But they took no heed to his dying prayer.
In a narrow grave, just six by three
They buried him there on the lone prairie.

[Conrad]

the farmer in the dell
the farmer in the dell
hi ho the derrie oh
the farmer in the dell