The Arkansaw Bear: A Tale of Fanciful Adventure

by Albert Bigelow Paine

The children drew up close at the first line and held their breath to listen. As the boy paused they shouted and screamed with laughter at the sight of Horatio fiddling in the forks of the tree. The dogs sat in a row and howled plaintively.

"Sing some more," cried the woman with the baby; "it amuses my little Joey."

BOSEPHUS HURRIED AFTER THEM AND STRUCK AT THEM.

"Yes, the people came to see them and the dogs they ran away,
And the boy began to sing and the Bear began to play,
Till it tickled all the children and it made the baby crow,
And it set the people dancing till they jumped—Jim—Crow."

"More! more!" shouted the people as they formed into cotillons and reels. "Sing us some more!"

"Oh, the ridy-diddle-diddle of Horatio and his fiddle,
And the singing of Bosephus they had never heard before;