While The Billy BoilsSearch(Written during the Russian Retreat.)
Oh, the scene is wide an’ dreary an’ the sun is settin’ red,An’ the grey-black sky of winter’s comin’ closer overhead.Oh, the sun is settin’ bloody with a blood-line on the snow,An’ across it to the westward you can see old Bruin go; You can see old Shaggy go, You can see the brown Bear go,An’ he’s draggin’ one leg arter, an’ he’s travellin’ pretty slow.
We can send a long shot arter, but he doesn’t seem to know—There’s a thin red line behind him where it’s dripped across the snow;He is weary an’ he’s wounded, with his own blood he’s half-blind,He is licked an’ he’s defeated, an’ he’s left some cubs behind; Yes, he’s left some cubs behind; Oh, he’s left some cubs behind;To the tune of sixty thousand he has left some cubs behind.
Oh, they’ve pulled him by the nose-ring and they’ve baited him in pits,An’ they bluffed him, an’ they bruised him, an’ they mostly gave him fits;But he hugged ’em badly one time when they tried him in his den—An’ he’ll make it warm for someone when he comes back East again; When the Bear comes back again, When he’s lopin’ round again,There’ll be lively times for Jacko when the Bear comes back again.
Oh, we chased him out of Turkey—I don’t know for what idea,It took two dogs an’ a lion for to beat him in Crimea;He’s goin’ home to lick his wounds, he’s goin’ to his den,But he’ll make it warm for someone when he comes South-East again, When the Bear comes back again, When old Bruin comes again,He will make some dead to die on when he comes back from his den.
Keep a sharp look-out behind you, every way you turn, my lad,It don’t matter who you might be, for you bet the Bear is mad;Keep a sharp look-out to Nor’ard, to the South an’ West an’ East,For he mostly always finds you where you most expect him least; Where you most expect him leastest, Where you most expect him least,Oh, you’ll catch him grabbin’ for yer where you most expect him least.