I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep,
I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep,
When I woke up with the shackles on my feet.

Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg,
Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg,
And on each link is initial of my name.

I asked the judge what might be my fine,
I asked the judge what might be my fine,
“Twenty-one years on the Rocky Mountain line.”

The train arrived, sixteen coaches long,
The train arrived, sixteen coaches long,
The girl I love is on that train and gone.

If any one asks you who composed this song,
If any one asks you who composed this song,
Tell him it was I and I sing it all day long.

Raccoon has a bushy tail,
Possum’s tail is bare,
Rabbit’s got no tail at all
But a little bunch of hair

Raccoon and the possum
Rackin’ cross the prairie
Raccoon ax the possum
Did she want to marry?

Possum is a cunning thing
He travels in the dark,
And never thinks to curl his tail
Till he hears old Rover bark

Went up on the mountain
Just to give my horn a blow
Thought I heard my true love say
Yonder comes my beau

Bile them Cabbage down
Turn them hoecakes round
The only song that I can sing
Is bile them cabbage down

Took my gal to the blacksmith shop
To have her mouth made small
She turned around a time or two
And swallowd shop and all

* Refrain

Possum in a Simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground
Raccoon says you son-of-a-gun
Shake some Simmon’s down

* Refrain

Someone stole my old ‘coon dog
Wish they’d bring him back
He chased the big hogs through the fence
And the little ones through the crack

* Refrain

Met a possum in the road
Blind as he could be
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog
And bristled up at me

* Refrain

Once I had an old gray mule
His name was Simon Slick
He’d roll his eyes and back his ears
And how that mule would kick

* Refrain

How that mule would kick
He kicked with his dying breath
He shoved his hind feet down his throat
And kicked himself to death

* Refrain

Students started harmonizing to “You Are My Sunshine” and watched the first segment of American Roots Music, which included a segment with “The Crawdad Hole,” which the students started singing on Monday.

We ended the week on Thursday with eight guitars playing while the other students sat on the risers and sang “The Crawdad Hole.”