Title: The Fox and the Geese
Air: Oh Susanna!
Written expressly for the Roxbury Taylor Club. To the tune of the popular song written by Stephen C. Foster.
At Kinderhook there long has dwelt
A very cunning Fox,
Who long for years gone-by has preyed
Upon the public flocks;
But now his game has grown so shy,
His profits to increase,
A new plan he's compelled to try,
To catch the public Geese.
Oh, Van Buren! you could n't come it quite,
You tried the Free Soil gammon, but that rooster wouldn't fight.
By that keen appetite compelled,
Long fasting will produce,
In borrowed plumes he takes the field,
Apparelled as a goose,
In hopes the stupid birds to gull,
And once more at his ease,
To laugh at, and grow fat upon
The luckless public geese.
Oh, Van Buren! c.
That he has really changed his side,
He tried hard to evince,
To puff his merits far and wide,
He sent the gallant prince;
Full many a noble bird he caught,
By cunning tricks like these,
But there's one flock he neer can gull,
The Massachusetts Geese.
Oh, Van Buren! c.
In vain this worthy tried his best,
In vain tried all his minions,
The public saw the fox's snout,
Beneath the goose's pinions,
They kept their distance, saved their hides,
And witnessed Van's decease,
Who starved to death, because, forsooth,
He could'nt catch the geese.
Oh, Van Buren! c.