Yankee Doodle – kinderliedje

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.

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Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,^[a]
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

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And there we saw a thousand men
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it could be savèd.

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The lasses they eat every day,
Would keep a house a winter;
They have so much, that I\’ll be bound,
They eat it when they\’ve a mind to.

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And there I see a swamping gun
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father’s cattle.

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And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder,
And makes a noise like father’s gun,
Only a nation louder.

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I went as nigh to one myself
As ‘Siah’s underpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the deuce was in him.

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Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I shrinked it off
And hung by father\’s pocket.

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And Cap\’n Davis had a gun,
He kind of clapt his hand on\’t
And stuck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on\’t

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And there I see a pumpkin shell
As big as mother\’s basin,
And every time they touched it off
They scampered like the nation.

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I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked on it with little clubs
And called the folks together.

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And there was Cap’n Washington,
And gentle folks about him;
They say he’s grown so ‘tarnal proud
He will not ride without ’em.

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He got him on his meeting clothes,
Upon a slapping stallion;
He sat the world along in rows,
In hundreds and in millions.

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The flaming ribbons in his hat,
They looked so tearing fine, ah,
I wanted dreadfully to get
To give to my Jemima.

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I see another snarl of men
A-digging graves, they told me,
So \’tarnal long, so \’tarnal deep,
They \’tended they should hold me.

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It scared me so, I hooked it off,
Nor stopped, as I remember,
Nor turned about till I got home,
Locked up in mother\’s chamber.

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