Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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	448	OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
	Said Mynheer, when he'd done his work, "By your knife I lose one fork, But on two crutches I never will stalk, For I'll have a beautiful leg of cork." An artist in Rotterdam, 'twould seem, Had made cork legs his study and theme, Each joint was as strong as an iron beam, [steam. The works were a compound of clockwork and The leg was made, and fitted right, Inspection the artist did invite, Its fine shape gave Mynheer delight, And he fixed it on and screw'd it tight. He walk'd thro' squares and pass'd each shop, Of speed he went to the utmost top ; Each step he took with a bound and a hop, Tiil he found his leg he could not stop! Horror and fright were in his face, The neighbors thought he was running a race ; He clung to a post to stay his pace, The leg remorseless kept up the chase.		He call'd to some men with all his might, "Oh ! stop this leg or I'm murder'd quite! " But though they heard him aid invite, He, in less than a minute, was out of sight. He ran o'er hill and dale and plain; To ease his weary bones, he fain Did throw himself down,—but all in vain, The leg got up and was off again ! He walk'd of days and nights a score, Of Europe he had made the tour, He died—but though he was no more, The leg walk'd on the same as before ! In Holland sometimes he comes in sight, A skeleton on a cork leg tight. No cash did the artist's skill requite, He never was paid — and it sarv'd him right. My tale I've told both plain and free, Of the richest merchant that could be, Who never was buried — though dead, ye see. And I've been singing his L. E. G. elegy.