514. The Billy Goat
Spaeth (Read 'Em and JVccp 158) gives this without author or
(late, but as he includes it in his chapter on "The Vogue of Harrigan
and Hart" it belongs in the period 1870-90. An elaborated version
of six stanzas has been recorded from the Midwest (Ford 374-5),
and a four-line fragment from Alabama Negroes (ANFS 231 ).
'A Billy Goat Was Feeling Fine.' Reported in 1913 by W. B. Covington
as "heard at Gary. Wake Guunty, four years ago."
^ This seems to be an attempt t(j reproduce the local pronunciation of
"shafts."
^ There is no lacuna indicated in tbe manuscript, but tlic missing word
can easily be supplied.
1 A billy i,n)at was feeling fine,
Ate six red shirts from ofi the line.
Sal took a stick and broke Bill's back
And tied him to the railroad track.
2 l^ong came a freight just six hours late.
It was too bad, made poor Bill mad.
Bill gave a shriek of roar^ and i>ain.
Coughed up the shirts and flagged the train.
' Probably iniscopicd for "fear."