Chapter 20
PART 20 of Ancient Ballads and Songs of Lancashire, edited by John Harland. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Frog and the Crow. We print this quaint song by permission from Notes and Queries, where it is given by a correspondent, T.I., who says that he has been familiar with it from childhood, but
can give no history of it save that it is tolerably well known in Lancashire and that the point consists in giving a scream over the last O, which invariably, if well done, elicits a start, even in those who are familiar with the rhyme and know what to expect. The present editor has frequently joined in the scream some fifty years ago. The moral is obvious, and the diction too recent for the song to have any great antiquity.
There was a jolly fat frog lived in the river swim O, and there was a cumbly black crow lived on the river brim O. Come on shore, come on shore, said the crow to the frog, and then O. No you will bite me, no you will bite me, said the frog to the crow again O. But there is sweet music on yonder green hill O, and you shall be a dancer, a dancer
in yellow. All in yellow, all in yellow, said the crow to the frog, and then O. Sir I thank you, sir I thank you, said the frog to the crow again O. Farewell ye little fishes that are in the river swim O, for I am going to be a dancer, a dancer in yellow.
O beware, O beware, said the fish to the frog again O. All in yellow, all in yellow, said the frog to the fish, and then O. The frog he came a swimming, a swimming to land O, and the crow he came hopping to lend him his hand O. Sir I thank you, sir I thank you, said the frog to the crow, and then O.
Sir you're welcome, sir you're welcome, said the crow to the frog again O. But where is the music on yonder green hill O, and where are the dancers, the dancers in yellow. All in yellow, all in yellow, said the frog to the crow, and then O. Sir they're here, sir they're here, said the crow to the frog, and eat him all up O.
End of part 20.
