To my excellent friend John Berry Esq., Mount Vernon, NY
from "Henry Tucker's Favorite Songs" [#2]
"Morning, or, The Cows Are in the Corn" (1878)
A Farming Song
by Henry Tucker.

Oh! father's gone to market town,
he's up before the day.
And Jamie's after [rubins?],
and the man is making hay;
And whistling down the hollow goes
the boy that minds the mill.
While mother from the kitchen door
is calling with a will:
"Polly! Polly! the cows are in the corn!
Oh! where's Poly?"

From all the misty morning air,
There comes a summer sound,
A murmur, as of waters,
From skies, and trees, and ground.
The birds they sing upon the wing.
The pigeons bill and cou,
And over hill and hollow, rings
Again that loud halloo:
"Poly! Poly! The cows are in the corn!"

How strange at such a time of day
the mill should stop its clatter;
The farmer's wife is list'ning now
and wonders what's the matter;
Oh! wild the birds are singing
in the wood and on the hill,
While whistl'ing up the hollow goes
the boy that mind the mill:
"Poly! Poly! the cows are in the corn!
Oh! where's Poly?"