Get Up and Bar the Door- Salswell (FL) 1949 Kirkland
Reprinted in Morris' Folksongs of Florida- 1950.
GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR (Child No. 275)
This version has not changed much by uansplantation across the Atlantic; both the dialect and the narrative sequence in which the story is told have remained tenaciously Scotch. Additional American variants may be found in Davis, pp. 495-496; Cox, pp. 515-517; Barry, Eckstorn, and Smyth, pp. 318-321; Greenleaf and Mansfield, pp. 41-42; and Randolph, I, 186.
"Get up and Bar the Door." Professor E. C. Kirkland, Gainesville, collected this song from one of his students, Mrs. Angela Salswell, Clearwater, who learned it from her father, Mr. William Gunn, a native of Scotland. The musical transcription, made by Professor Robert C. Lee, and the text were printed in an article prepared by Professor Kirkland and published in SFQ, XIII, 169-174.
It was about the Martinmas time,
An' a gay time it was then, O,
For our guid wife had puddins to make,
An'she biled them in the pan, O.
First she made a black puddin',
And then she made a white, O.
. . . .
. . . .
The win'was blowin' fram the north;
It blew upon the floor, O.
Said our guid man to our guid wife,
"Gae up an' bar the door, O."
"My han's are in my hussyfcap [1]
Guid man, as ye can see, O;
It'll nae be barred this hunder year;
It'lI nae be barred by me, O."
They made a paction twixt them twa,
An' they made it firm an' sure, O,
That the first ane spaking the foremost ward
Should gae up an' bar the door, O.
The win' blew cauder fram the north,
It blew upon the floor, O,
But naether a ward woud ane of them spake
For the barrin' o' the door, O.
By there came twa travelers
At twelve o'clock at nicht, O.
And naether ane coud see house nor hale
Nor cale nor candlelicht, O.
"Coud this be a rich man's hous,
Or coud it be a poor, O?"
But ne'er a ward wad ane o' them spak
For the barrin' o' the door, O.
First they ate the black puddin',
An' then they ate the white, O;
Though muckle thocht the guid wife to hersel',
Yet not ane ward she spoke, O.
Then said the ane unto the ither,
"Here man, take ye my knife, O;
Ye cut off the auld man's beard,
An' I'll kiss the guid wife, O."
Then up starts our guid man,
An' an angry man is he, O,
"Woud ye kiss my wife before my face
An' scad me wi' puddin' bree, O?"
Then up jumps our guid wife
Gae three skips roond the floor, O,
"Guid man ye've spaken the foremost ward;
Gae up an' bar the door, O."
1. Sausage meat