479. Old Bee Makes de Honey Comb
The song appears in Uncle Renins, His Songs and His Sayings, new and revised edition (New York, 1920), p. 195. The text as
given below was printed with notes by White ANFS 382. With it cf. 'Hard Times,' below.
Reported from Durham, 1919, MS of Jesse M. Livingston, as "Heard in 1914 on plantation in Scotland County, N. C."
The old bee makes de honey comb.
The young bee makes de honey ;
Colored folks plant de cotton and corn
And de white folks gits de money.