Old Threshing Song

It's all very well to have a machine
To thrash your wheat and barley clean;
To thrash it and wim it all fit for sale,
Then go off to market so brisk and well,
Singing Rumble-dum-dairy,
Flare up Mary
And make her old table shine.

The man who made her he made her so well
He made every cog and wheel to tell
While the big wheel runs the little one hums
And the feeder he sits above the drum.

There's old Father Howard the sheaves to put
While old Mother Howard she does put up
And Mary she sits and feeds all day
While Johnny he carries the straw away.

At seven o'clock we do begin
And we generally stop about nine or ten
To have our beer and oil her up
Then away we go till one o'clock

Then after a bite and a drink all 'round
The driver he climbs to his box again
And with his long whip he shouts, "All right!"
And he drives them 'round till five at night

note: one of the rare songs in praise of a machine;
in the mid-1860's there were riots in Sussex in opposition
to the new threshing machines.

From the Copper Family Song Book
RG
Apr98