An Old Man Came Tumbling Home- (SC) 1928 Smith
[This version was four stanza long but only two were written out. Smith says: "In the later stanzas a pair of pants is explained as a pumpkin bag, a man's head as a baby, etc."]
An Old Man Came Tumbling Home (Child 274)- Communicated by P. W. C., C. H. C., W. J. K., Jr., and R. S., of Columbia, n.d. from Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, pp. 159-61 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1928).
An old man came tumbling home
As drunk as he could be
He found a horse within the stall
Where his horse ought to be
"My dear wife my kind wife
My loving wife," says he.
"Whose horse is that within the stall
Where my horse ought to be?"
"You poor fool you (blind) fool [1]
You son of a (gun)," says she.
"That's nothing but a milk-cow
Your mother gave to me."
I've traveled the wide world over
I've sailed from shore to shore
But a saddle on a milk-cow
I never have seen before
2. An old man came tumbling home,
As drunk as he could be.
He found a hat upon the rack
Where his hat ought to be.
"My dear wife, my kind wife,
My loving wife," says he,
"Whose hat is that upon the rack
Where my hat ought to be?"
"You poor fool, you [blind] fool,
You son of a [gun]," says she,
"That's nothing but a peck-measure, [2]
Your mother gave to me."
"I've traveled the wide world over,
I've sailed from shore to shore.
But silk lining in a peck-measure
I never have seen before."
1. I assume that the words in brackets where curse words, probably "damn" and "bitch"
2. one quarter of a bushel= probably a bushel basket