Redio, Tedio

(he) I want you to make me a cambric shirt

Fum-a-lum-a-link, sup-a-loo-my-nee
With neither seam nor needlework

Redio, tedio, toddle-bod-bedio

Fum-a-lum-a-link, sup-a-loo-my-nee

(she) I want you to buy me an acre of land
Between salt water and the sea-sand.

Plow it o'er with an old buck's horn
Plant it o'er with one peppercorn.

Reap it down with a peacock's feather
Bind it up with the sting of an adder.

Thrash it out with a mouse's tail
Cart it in on the back of a snail.

When you have completed your work
Come to me, you shall have your shirt.

Child #2
From Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads, Bronson (3)
Collected from <rs. Sisie Carr Young, ME 1929, learned from
Sybil Emery in 1882

RG