Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 293 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Slave Songs of the United States (1867) by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.
Sandburg writes: "One of the lasting creations from enslavement days."
Day 293 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Slave Songs of the United States (1867) by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.
Sandburg writes: "One of the lasting creations from enslavement days."




![A Boy He Had an Auger
Day 213 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: An old English song is revamped in American colleges. Spoken final lines are improvised, as follows, The Q is silent as in electricity, or The bee is not mentioned as in bumble or honey, and so on.
[from the Traditional Ballad Index] The only part of this Ill try to explain is the line about the G is silent as in fish. This may go back to [George Bernard] Shaw, who proposed to spell the word fish ghoti. Other verses and other conclusions (e.g. The Q is silent as in electricity) make even less sense. A Boy He Had an Auger](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VR9MwWTZphM/mqdefault.jpg)





