Kansas Boys
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-05-27

Day 72 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series.  (folksongindex)

Sandburg writes: "The verses traveled up into Nebraska districts where they pitch horseshoes and hold championship corn-husking contests, for Edwin Ford Piper, who lived on a farm near Auburn, wrote of  Kansas Boys, "This ballad I found in my sister's note book. The older brothers and sisters used to sing it."

Kansas Boys

Come, all young girls, pay attention to my noise, 
Don't fall in love with the Kansas boys,
For if you do your portion it will be, 
Johnny cake and antelope is all you'll see.

They'll take you out on the jet black hill, 
Take you there so much against your will, 
Leave you there to perish on the plains, 
For that is the way with the Kansas range.'

Some live in a cabin with a huge log wall, 
Nary a window in it at all, 
Sand stone chimney and a puncheon floor, 
Clapboard roof and a button door.

When they get hungry and go to make bread, 
They kindle a fire as high as your head, 
Rake around the ashes and in they throw, 
The name they give it is "doughboys' dough/'

When they go to milk they milk in a gourd, 
Heave it in the corner and cover with a board, 
Some get plenty and some get none,
That is the way with the Kansas run.

When they go to meeting the clothes that they wear 
Is an old brown coat all picked and bare,
An old white hat more rim than crown,
A pair of cotton socks they wore the week around.

When they go to farming you needn't be alarmed, 
In February they plant their corn,
The way they tend it I'll tell you now, 
With a Texas pony and a grasshopper plow.

When they go a-fishing they take along a worm, 
Put it on the hook just to see it squirm,
The first thing they say when they get a bite 
Is "I caught a fish as big as Johnny White."

When they go courting they take along a chair,
The first thing they say is, "Has your daddy killed a bear,'* 
The second thing they say when they sit down 
Is "Madam, your Johnny cake is baking brown."