"Old Bob White"

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Old Bob White's a funny bird!--
  Funniest you ever heard!--
  Hear him whistle,--"Old--Bob--_White_!"
  You can hear him, clean from where
  He's 'way 'crosst the wheat-field there,
  Whistlin' like he didn't care--
  "Old-Bob-_White_!"

  Whistles alluz ist the same--
  So's we won't fergit his name!--
  Hear him say it?--"Old--Bob--_White_!"
  _There!_ he's whizzed off down the lane--
  Gone back where his folks is stayin'--
  Hear him?--There he goes again,--
  "Old--Bob--_White_!"

  When boys ever tries to git
  Clos't to him--how quick he'll quit
  Whistlin' his "Old-Bob--_White_!"
  "_Whoo-rhoo-rhoo!_" he's up an' flew,
  Ist a-purt'-nigh skeerin' you
  Into fits!--'At's what he'll do.--
  "Old-Bob--_White_!"

  Wunst our Hired Man an' me,
  When we drove to Harmony,
  Saw one, whistlin' "Old--Bob--_White_!"
  An' we drove _wite clos't_, an' I
  Saw him an' he didn't fly,--
  Birds likes horses, an' that's why.
  "Old--Bob--_White_!"

  One time, Uncle Sidney says,
  Wunst he rob' a Bob White's nes'
  Of the eggs of "Old Bob White";
  Nen he hatched 'em wiv a hen
  An' her little chicks, an' nen
  They ist all flewed off again!
  "Old--Bob--_White_!"

© James Whitcomb Riley