Get Up & Bar the Door- Couper (MA-OK) 1920 Moore
[This was learned in Scotland pre1920 when Couper immigrated to Boston.]
From: BALLADS AND FOLK SONGS OF THE SOUTHWEST- Moores 1964
51. Get Up and Bar the Door
The ballad Get Up and Bar the Door (Child, No.275) has for its theme a subject common in all European countries. For references, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 318-21; Cox, 515-17; Creighton and Senior, 92-93; Davis, 495-96; Gardner and Chickering, 371-72; Greenleaf and Mansfield, 4I-42; Morris, 320-21 ; and Randolph, I, 186.
Get Up and Bar the Door- sung by Frank G. Couper of Tulsa. Mr. Couper was born in Dundee, Angus, Scotland, and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1920. He moved to Oklahoma in 1928.
It fell about the Martinmas time,
And a gay time it was then, O!
When oor guidwife had puddins tae mak',
And she boiled them in a pan, O!
For the barrin'of oor door weel, weel, weel,
Oh the barrin' of oor door weel.
The wind blew cauld frae north tae south;
It blew intae the floor, O!
Says oor guidman tae oor guidwife:
"Rise up and bar the door, O!"
The barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
Oh the barrin' of oor door weel.
"My hand is in my husswife-skip,
As ye may plainly see, O !
Should it ne'er be barr'd this hunner year,
It'll no' be barr'd by me, O!"
The barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
Oh the barrin' of oor door weel.
They made a paction 'tween them twa:
They made it firm and sure, O!
Whoever spak' the foremost word
Should rise and bar the door, O !
The barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
Oh the barrin' of oor door weel.
Then by there cam' two gentlemen
At twal'o'clock at nicht, O!
And they could see nor hoose nor ha'
Nor coal nor can'le licht, O!
The barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
The barrin' of oor door weel.
"Noo whether is that a rich man's hoose,
Or whether isn't a puir, O?"
But ne'er a word did ane o' tham speak,
For the barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
The barrin' of oor door weel.
At first they ate the white puddin,
And then they ate the black, O!
Tho' muckle thoucht the guidwife tae hersel',
Yet ne'er a word she spak, O!
The barrin' of oor door weel, weel, weel,
The barrin' of oor door weel.