The Horse Named Bill
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-10-15

Day 211 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

Sandburg writes: "The tempo for this song is indicated as "with lucid intervals if possible." It is a highbrow folk song disbursed in many places where the higher learning is sought. The text is from Bed Lewis of Sauk Center, Minnesota, who got the last verse from George Sterling of San Francisco, and one or two other verses from an Englishman in Italy returning from a cruise to Bombay. On the same boat was a rah-rah boy from Walla Walla, Washington, who asked the Englishman, "What is a caterpillar?" and answering his own riddle, said, "A caterpillar is a worm in a raccoon coat going for a college education”. Also he told the Englishman, Walla Walla is named twice for the sake of those who didn't hear the first time.""

The Traditional Ballad Index states, "I incline to the opinion that Sandburg wrote most of these verses."