The Old Fish Song Now buddy get up and come here to your pap I'll tell you a story, climb up in my lap 'Tis better than the story of Daniel or Ruth Although it is fishy, it's every bit truth Now listen right good while I tell you this tale How Jonah the prophet got caught by this whale That whale caught poor Jonah and bless your dear soul It not only caught him, it swallowed him whole Part of the story is awfully sad 'Tis about a big city that went to the bad When the Lord saw them people with such wicked ways He said, I can't stand them but forty more days He spoke to old Jonah, then said, go and try To the wicked old city and tell them that I Give them forty days more to get humbled down And if they don't do it, I'll tear up the town When he heard the Lord speaking, old Jonah said no I'm a true hard-shell Baptist, and so I won't go The Nineveh people are nothing to me And then I'm against foreign missions, you see So he went down to Joppa t'was there in great haste That he boarded a ship for a different place The Lord looked down on him and, said He Old Jonah's fixing to run off on me He set the wind a-blowin with its squeaks and its squeals The sea then got rowdy and kicked up its heels Old Jonah confessed, it was caused by his sins So the crew threw him out and the whale took him in The whale said to Jonah, old feller, don't fret I'm sent here to take you in out of the wet So he opened his mouth and poor Jonah went in You're going to get punished right much for your sin What a funny sight, bud, that ever was seen When Jonah rode off in his new submarine The Nineveh people did not repent For the message of warning to them was mis-sent On a bed of green seaweed, that whale tried to rest He said, now I'll sleep while my food'll digest So he got mighty restless and sore afraid For he rumbled inside as the old prophet prayed Now you see how God's letter to Nineveh lay In the dead-letter office for three nights and days The old prophet shut in as tight as a lock But all things will be opened as sure as you knock The third day, the old fish rose from his bed With his stomach tore up and a pain in his head He said, I must get to the air mighty quick That filthy old sinner's a-making me sick So he winked his big eyes and he wiggled his tail Pulled out for the shore to deliver his mail He came near the shore and then he looked all around And vomited Jonah clear out on the ground Old Jonah thanked God for His mercy and grace Turning to the whale and then he made a face Said after three days and nights you have found A good man, old sucker, you can't keep him down So the prophet stretched up with a yawn and a sigh Set down in the sun for his clothing to dry He thought how much better his preaching would be Since from Whale Seminary, he had a degree Having rested himself, he dried well in the sun Then started for Nineveh almost in a run He said, I must hurry and try not to sin I'm sure I don't want to be swallowed again He arrived at the city about a week late Then he preached from the time that he entered the gate 'Til the whole population repented and prayed And the great hand of justice and vengeance was stayed When you disobey mammy, remember this tale When you run off from home, bud look out for the whale There's varmints to get you on sea and on land And a boy can be swallowed lots easier than a man From Mike Seeger's singing DP oct97
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!