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My Four Little Johnny-Cakes [song]

19 March 2022 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This song was published in Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition, 1932), edited by Banjo Paterson.]

My Four Little Johnny-Cakes

Hurrah for the Lachlan, boys, and join me in a cheer;
That’s the place to go to make a cheque every year.
With a toadskin in my pocket, that I borrowed from a friend,
Oh, isn’t it nice and cosy to be camping in the bend!

Chorus
With my four little johnny-cakes all nicely cooked,
A nice little codfish just off the hook;
My little round flour-bag sitting on a stump,
My little tea- and sugar-bag a-looking nice and plump.

I have a loaf of bread and some murphies that I shook,
Perhaps a loaf of brownie that I snavelled off the cook,
A nice leg of mutton, just a bit cut off the end,
Oh isn’t it nice and jolly to be whaling in the bend!

Chorus: With my four, etc.

I have a little book and some papers for to read,
Plenty of matches and a good supply of weed;
I envy not the squatter, as at my fire I sit,
With a paper in my hand and my old clay a-lit.

Chorus: With my four, etc.

And when the shearing-time comes round, I’m in my glory then;
I saddle up my moke and then secure a pen;
I canter thro’ the valley, and gallop o’er the plain;
I shoot a turkey or stick a pig, and off to camp again.

Chorus: With my four, etc.



Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition), Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1932, pp. 65-66

Editor’s notes:
clay = clay pipe (for smoking tobacco)

johnny-cake = a cake or flatbread made using cornmeal, salt, and water or milk

Lachlan = the Lachlan River, in New South Wales

moke = a horse, especially an inferior horse (originally, it was a term for a donkey)

mutton = the meat of an adult sheep (as used for food)

o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

pen = (in the context of sheep farming) a shearing pen

snavel = grab, obtain, snatch; pickpocket; nick, steal (similar to the word “snaffle”)

squatter = in the context of Australian history, a squatter was originally someone who kept their livestock (mostly cattle and sheep) upon Crown land without permission to do so (thus illegally occupying land, or “squatting”); however, the practice became so widespread that eventually the authorities decided to formalise it by granting leases or licenses to occupy or use the land; and, with the growth of the Australian economy, many of the squatters became quite rich, and the term “squatter” came to refer to someone with a large amount of farm land (they were often regarded as rich and powerful)

thro’ = (vernacular) through

weed = tobacco (can also refer to: an unwanted plant; marijuana; a thin, weak, puny person)

whaling = the activity of a whaler: (also spelt “waler”) a swagman who survives without working; these swagmen would commonly travel up and down rivers, fishing to sustain themselves, as well as going from station to station for handouts, often timing their arrival at a homestead at sundown, so that they could ask for food and lodging, but with little to no risk of being asked to perform some work in exchange, which is why they were also known as “sundowners” (“whaler” may also refer to a whaling ship, or someone who works on a whaling ship)

[Editor: The word “Chorus” (which is used several times in this song) has been put into italics (Chorus) so as to distinguish it from the text of the song.]

Filed Under: songs Tagged With: Old Bush Songs (Banjo Paterson 1932), shearers, song, SourceTrove, year1932

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