Pop
Goes the Weasel
And that night, for a special birthday treat,
Pa played "Pop Goes the Weasel" for her.
"Pop! (said Pa's finger on the string)
But Laura
and Mary hadn't seen Pa's finger make the string pop.
Goes the weasel! (sang the fiddle, plain as plain.)"
Little House in the Big Woods, Sundays
The
Devil's Dream, Money Musk, and
Arkansas Traveler
The room was still and warm and full of firelight. Ma's shadow,
and Aunt Eliza's and Uncle Peter's were big and quivering on the walls
in the flickering firelight, and Pa's fiddle sang merrily to itself.
It sang "Money Musk," and "The Red Heifer," "The Devil's Dream," and
"Arkansas Traveler."
Little House in the Big Woods, Christmas
And Laura went to sleep while Pa and the fiddle were both softly
singing:
"My darling Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more..."
Little House in the Big Woods, Christmas
Laura watched Ma's skirt swaying and her little waist bending and
her dark head bowing, and she thought Ma was the loveliest dancer in
the world. The fiddle was singing:
"Oh, you Buffalo gals,
Aren't you coming out tonight...
Laura watched the dancers again. Pa was playing "The Irish
Washerwoman" now. He called:
"Doe see, ladies, doe see doe,
Laura could not keep her feet still.
Come down heavy on your heel and toe!"
Then Pa began to play again the song about Old Grimes. But he did
not sing the words he had sung when Ma was making cheese. These words
were different. Pa's strong, sweet voice was softly singing...
When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, "What are
the days of auld lang syne, Pa?"
"They are the days of a long time ago, Laura," Pa said.
Little House in the Big Woods, Deer in the Wood
Pa was keeping time with his foot, and Laura clapped her hands
to the music when he sang,
"And I'll sing Yankee Doodle-de-do..."
Little House in the Big Woods, Winter Days
Laura stood up on the board and Pa held her safe by the arm, so she could see the town. When she saw it, she could hardly breathe. She knew how Yankee Doodle felt, when he could not see the town because there were so many houses.
Little House in the Big Woods, Going to Town
Laura and Mary lay in their trundle bed and listened to the Sunday
hymns, for even the fiddle must not sing the week-day songs on
Sundays.
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me," Pa sang, with the fiddle.
Then he sang:
"Shall I be carried to the skies,
Laura began to float away on the music, and then she heard a clattering
noise, and there was Ma by the stove, getting breakfast.
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?"
"Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me," the fiddle wailed, and Pa
began to sing." Oh
Susanna!
She sat down beside Pa at the fire, and Pa took his fiddle out of
the box and began to play.
"Play, Ingalls!" he said. "Play me down the road!" So while he went
down the creek road and out of sight, Pa played, and Pa and Mr. Edwards
and Laura sang with all their might...
Far over the prairie rang Pa's big voice and Laura's little one,
and faintly from the creek bottoms came a last whoop from Mr. Edwards.
"Git out of the way for Old Dan Tucker!
He's too late to get his supper!"
But when they were in bed he took down his fiddle. Softly he played
and softly sang,
"So green grows the laurel,
Ma turned toward him and smiled.
And so does the rue,
So woeful, my love,
At the parting with you."
Then Ma laughed, and Pa and the fiddle sang again.
"In Dixie land I'll take my stand,
They sang with a lilt and a swing that almost lifted Laura right
out of bed.
And live and die in Dixie!
Away, away, away, away,
Away down south in Dixie!"
The fiddle began to play a marching tune, and Pa's clear voice
was singing like a deep-toned bell.
"We'll rally round the flag, boys,
Laura felt that she must shout too.
We'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of Freedom!"
Pa was whistling, and when Sam and David started he began to sing.
"Oh, every Sunday morning
"Charles," Ma said, softly, to remind him that this was Sunday.
My wife is by my side
A-waiting for the wagon,
And we'll all take a ride!"
After that everyone stood up. They all opened their mouths and tried to sing "Jerusalem, the Golden." Not many of them knew the words or the tune. Miserable squiggles went up Laura's backbone and the insides of her ears crinkled. She was glad when they all sat down again. On the Banks of Plum Creek, Going to Church
The little girls always played ring-around-a-rosy, because Nellie Oleson said to. They got tired of it, but they always played it, till one day, before Nellie could say anything, Laura said, "Let's play Uncle John!" On the Banks of Plum Creek, Nellie Oleson
He played "The Campbells Are Coming, Hurrah! Hurrah!"
On the Banks of Plum Creek, Grasshopper Eggs
The
Girl I Left Behind Me and When Johnny
Comes Marching Home
After supper, when night and lamplight came, Pa took his fiddle
out of the box and tuned it lovingly.
"I have missed this," he said, looking around at them all. Then
he began to play. He played "When Johnnie Comes Marching Home." He
played "The sweet little girl, the pretty little girl, the girl I
left behind me!"
My Old Kentucky Home
and Swanee River
He played and sang "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Swanee River." On the Banks of Plum Creek, Going to Town
Then the fiddle changed the tune and Pa began to sing about
sweet Lily Dale.
"Twas a calm, still night,
And the moon's pale light
Shone soft o'er hill and dale...
Pa glanced at Ma, busy at the stove, while Mary and Laura sat
listening, and the fiddle slipped into frolicking up and down with
his voice.
"Mary put the dishes on,
"And what shall I do, Pa?" Laura cried, while Mary ran to get the plates
and cups from the cupboard. The fiddle and Pa kept singing, down all the
steps they had just gone up.
"Laura take them off again,
So Laura knew that Mary was to set the table for supper and she was
to clear away afterward.
The dishes on, the dishes on,
Mary put the dishes on,
We'll all take tea!"
Off again, off again,
Laura clear the table when
We've all gone away!"
But Laura liked the waltz songs best. She loved the Broom song,
though they had to sing "broom" so many times to make the tune swing.
"Buy a broo-oom, buy a broom, broom!
Buy a broom, broom, buy a broom, broom!
Will you buy of this wandering Bavarian a broom?
Ma rocked Grace slowly to and fro, and Laura brought Pa the
fiddle box. Now the happy winter evenings were begun.
"Hail, ye heroes, Heaven born band!
Firm, united let us be,
Rallying 'round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined
Peace and safety we shall find.
Hail, Columbia, happy land!" (Pa sang with the fiddle.)
By the Shores of Silver Lake, Last Man Out
He looked at Mary sitting quietly with beautiful empty eyes and
folded hands in her rocking chair by the oven. "What shall I play
for you, Mary?"
"I would like to hear 'Highland Mary', Pa."
Softly Pa played a verse. "Now, Mary! Help sing!" he said, and they
sang together.
Laura had never been so happy, and for some reason she was
happiest of all when they were singing,
"Ye banks and braes of Bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
So gaily all together they sang the lively song. And Laura got
up and pretended to be wading across a creek, holding her skirts
above her ankles and laughing back over her shoulder, singing:
"Ilka lassie has her laddie,
Nane, they say, ha'e I,
Yet all the lads they smile at me
When coming through the Rye."
He raised the fiddle again from its nest in the box and tried it
to see that it was in tune. "What'll it be, Boast?"
"'Merry Christmas Everywhere,'" said Mr. Boast. His tenor voice
joined Pa's bass. Mrs. Boast's soft alto and Laura's soprano and
Mary's followed, then Ma's contralto. Carrie's little treble
piped up happily.
Keep the Horseshoe Hung Over the Door
Over the door Pa hung his rifle and his shotgun, and then he hung
on a nail above them a bright, new horseshoe...
Ma's eyes smiled into his eyes, and he said to Laura, "I could sing
you a song about that horseshoe."
She brought him the fiddle box, and he sat down in the doorway and
tuned the fiddle. Ma settled in her chair to rock Grace to sleep.
Softly Laura washed the dishes and Carrie wiped them while Pa
played the fiddle and sang...
"Keep the horseshoe hung over the door!
"It sounds rather heathenish to me, Charles," Ma said.
It will bring you good luck evermore.
If you would be happy and free from all care,
Keep the horseshoe hung over the door!"
His eyes twinkled at Ma while the music laughed and whirled and
then he would sing:
She can make a cherry pie,
Billy boy! Billy boy!
The music would go rollicking while only Pa and Mr. Boast sang:
"I bet my money on the bob-tailed mare
Even in songs Ma did not approve of gambling, but her toe could not
stop tapping while Pa played such tunes.
And you bet yours on the gray!"
Then every evening they all sang one round. Mr. Boast's tenor would begin, "Three blind mice," and go on while Mrs. Boast's alto began, "Three blind mice," then as she went on Pa's bass would join in, "Three blind mice," and then Laura's soprano, and Ma's contralto, and Mary and Carrie. When Mr. Boast reached the end of the song he began it again without stopping, and they all followed, each behind the other, going round and round with words and music. By the Shores of Silver Lake, Happy Winter Days
Ben Bolt and Oft in the Stilly Night
And then Pa would play some of the old songs, "to go to sleep on,"
he said....
"Oh, do you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
And,
"Oft in the stilly night,
Sweet Alice with eyes so brown
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembled with fear at your frown?"
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Sweet memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
Pa was singing with the fiddle:
"In Scarlet town where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwellin'
And every youth cried 'Well-a-wa.'
Her name was Barbary Allen.
And, as she fell asleep still thinking of violets and fairy
rings and moonlight over the wide, wide land, where their very own
homestead lay, Pa and the fiddle were softly singing:
"Home! Home! Sweet, sweet home,
Be it ever so humble,
There is no place like home."
I am as Happy as a Big Sunflower
Laura woke up suddenly. She heard singing and a queer slapping
sound.
"Oh, I am as happy as a big sunflower (Slap! Slap)
Pa was singing his trouble song and slapping his arms on his chest.
That nods and bends in the breezes, Oh! (Slap! Slap!)
And my heart (Slap!) is as light (Slap!) as the wind that blows (Slap! Slap!)
The leaves from off the treeses, Oh! (Slap! SLAP!)"
All the Blue Bonnets Are Over the Border
Round and round they marched, Laura and Carrie and Grace, singing
with all their might, thumping loud thumps of their shoes on the floor.
"Mount and make ready, then,
They felt that banners were blowing above them and that they were
marching to victory. They did not even hear the storm. They were
warm to the tips of their toes.
Sons of the mountain glen,
Fight! for your homes and the old Scottish glory!"
The Old Gray Mare and
Highland Fling
Pa played and sang "Little Annie Rooney is my Sweetheart!" and "The Old Gray Mare, She Ain't What She Used to Be," till even Ma's toes were keeping time to it. He played the Highland Fling, and Irish jigs, and out on the clickety-clattering floor Laura and Carrie danced till their breath was gone.
The Long Winter, Alone
Sweet By and By and A Shelter in the Time
of Storm
After dinner Pa played hymn tunes on his fiddle, and all the
afternoon they sang. They sang:
"There's a land that is fairer than day,
And:
"Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
And by faith we can see it afar..."
A weary land, a weary land
Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
A shelter in the time of storm."
No one cheered. It was more like a moment to say, "Amen." But
no one quite knew what to do.
Then Pa began to sing. All at once everyone was singing,
"My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing..."
His mood changed, and so did the fiddle's. They sang,
"Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal,
Sing polly-wolly-doodle all the day!
The sleigh bells were ringing, the sleigh runners squeaking on
the hard-packed snow, and Laura was so happy that she had to sing.
"Jingle bells, jingle bells,
All along the speeding line, other voices took up the tune. Swinging
out on the open prairie and back, fast up the street and out on the
prairie and back again, the bells went ringing and the voices singing
in the frosty air.
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh."
Then the band tuned up again and everybody rose. Men and boys
took off their hats. The band played, and everybody sang.
"Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
From the top of the flagpole, up against the blue sky, the Stars and
Stripes were fluttering. Everybody looked at the American flag, and
Almanzo sang with all his might.
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming..."
