| Lyrics: | TOM TWIST
Tom Twist was a wonderful fellow;
No boy was so nimble or strong.
He
could turn ten somersaults backwards,
And stand on his head all day long.
Tom Twist
liked the life of the sailor,
And with a hop and a skip,
He turned ten somersaults
backwards,
And landed on board of a ship.
The ship went down in a tempest,
A
thousand leagues from shore,
And Tommy dove under the breakers,
And swimming ten miles
reached the shore,
The shore was a cannibal's island;
The natives were hungry
enough.
They felt our Tommy all over,
And found him entirely too tough.
So they
put him into a boy-coop,
To fatten him up, you see.
But Tom crept out very
swiftly,
And running a mile, clim' a tree.
On the tree is the nest of a
condor,
A bird with prodigious big wings,
Who dined upon boa constrictors,
And other
digestible things.
The condor flew home in the evening,
And there ate friend Tommy
so snug.
(The reason, it seems, was) she thought him
A remarkable specie of
bug.
She soon woke him up with her kicking,
And Tommy gave one of his
springs,
And landed on the back of the condor,
Between his long neck and his
wings.
The condor flew pitching and tumbling,
But Tommy held on with firm
hands.
Away with a scream flew the condor,
O'er oceans, and forests, and
lands.
Then getting quite tired of his burden,
He flew quite close to the
ground.
Tom untwisted his legs from the creature
And quickly slid off with a
bound.
He landed all right and feet foremost,
A little confused by his
fall.
And there he "essaned" himself,
On top of a great Chinese wall.
He
traveled the city of Pekin,
And he made the Chinamen grin.
By turning ten somersaults
backwards
So they made him a Mandarin.
So Tommy had to play the Celestial,
And
dangle a long pigtail,
And dine upon puppies and kittens,
Till his spirits began for to
fail.
He sighs for his dear home and "arbor,"
He sighs for his ham and eggs,
In
turning ten somersaults backwards,
His pigtail got caught in his legs.
He sailed for
his dear home and "arbor,"
The house of his mother he knew.
He climbed up the lightning
rod quickly,
And came down the chimney flue.
His mother lay there
a-dreaming,
She never would see him more.
She opened her eyes and Tommy
Stood there
on the bedroom floor.
Her nightcap flew off in amazement;
Her hair stood on end with
surprise.
"What kind of a ghost or a spirit,
Is this that I see with my
eyes!"
"It is your most dutiful Tommy."
"I will not believe it," she
said.
"Until you turn ten somersaults backward,
And stand half an hour on your
head."
"Oh, that I will do, dearest mother,"
So off with a skip and a hop,
He
turned the ten somersaults backward
And then was unable to stop.
The stunt took him
out of the window,
His mother, she sprang from her bed ,
To see the ten somersaults taking
him
Over the kitchen shed.
And onto the patch of potatoes,
Beyond the church on
the hill.
She saw him a-turning and tumbling,
He's turning and tumbling
still.
From Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads, Flanders
collected from Mrs John
Anderson, Windsor, VT 1930
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