The Plains of Illinois

Come, all you good old farmers that on your plow depend,
Come listen to a story, come listen unto a trienel:
Leave your fields of childhood, you enterprising boys,
Come travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

Illinois it is as fine countree as ever has been seen;
If old Adam had traveled over that, perhaps he would say the same
"All in the garden of Eden, when I was but a boy,
There was nothing I could compare with the plains of Illinois."

Perhaps you have a few acres that near your friends adjoin;
Your family is growing large, for them you must provide:
Come, leave your fields of childhood, you enterprising boys,
Travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

From Folk Songs of the Catskills, Cazden Haufrecht and Studer
Collected from George Edwards
RG