The O’Lincoln Family

Wilson Flagg (1805–1884)

A FLOCK of merry singing-birds were sporting in the grove:

Some were warbling cheerily, and some were making love:

There were Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winter seeble, Conquedle,—

A livelier set was never led by tabor, pipe, or fiddle—

Crying, “Phew, shew, Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon,

Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups!

I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap

Bobbing in the clover there,—see, see, see!”

Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree,

Startled by his rival’s song, quickened by his raillery;

Soon he spies the rogue afloat, curvetting in the air,

And merrily he turns about, and warns him to beware!

“’T is you that would a-wooing go, down among the rushes O!

But wait a week, till flowers are cheery,—wait a week, and, ere you marry,

Be sure of a house wherein to tarry!

Wadolink, Whiskodink, Tom Denny, wait, wait, wait!”

Every one ’s a funny fellow; every one ’s a little mellow;

Follow, follow, follow, follow, o’er the hill and in the hollow!

Merrily, merrily, there they hie; now they rise and now they fly;

They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle, and wheel about,—

With a “Phew, shew, Wadolincon! listen to me, Bobolincon!—

Happy ’s the wooing that ’s speedily doing, that ’s speedily doing,

That ’s merry and over with the bloom of the clover!

Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, follow, follow me!”