JOHNNY AND OLD MR. HENLY



Johnny meets his honest neighbor

What he told him was to plague him:

"I saw your wife and I saw no more,

With another man and they closed the door."



Johnny went home in great wonder,

Bumping on the door like thunder.

"Who is that?" Mr. Henly cried,

"'Tis my husband; you must hide."



His wife held the door while old Mr. Henly,

Jumping and jerking, went up the chimney.

Johnny came in and looked all around;

Not a soul could there be found.



Johnny sat down by the fireplace weeping;

Up the chimney he got to peeping.

There he spied the frightened soul

Sitting across the pot-rack pole.



Johnny reached up and really catched him

Like a raccoon dog he fetched him,

Round and around he mopped the floor

Then kicked him out at the open door.



Through that door poor Johnny kicked him

Henly felt every lick that hit him.

"Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny forebear ye

Never any more you'll see me."



Henly ran with all his power

Making forty miles an hour;

Down the road and over the fence

No one has ever seen him since.



Note: One of a large number of variants usually titled Will the

Weaver, Pot-Rack Pole or Jumping and Jerking that have been

collected all over North America.RG



From Folk Songs of the Blue Ridhe Mountains, Shellan

Collected from John Vass, Hillsville, VA 1959

@infidelity @marriage @fight

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