I WOULDN'T LEAVE MY LITTLE WOODEN HUT FOR YOU
(Tom Mellor / Charles Collins - 1896)

Stanley Kirkby - 1905
Burt Shepard - 1906
Albert Whelan - 1906
Harrison Latimer - 1906
Billy Williams - 1909 (Parody version titled
"I Wouldn't Wear Another Wooden Leg For You")

Also recorded by:
Ian Whitcomb; Mrs. Mills; Clinton Ford; Big Ben Banjo Band;
Charlie Kunz ............ and others. 




Once on a cannibal isle there dwelt a dark-eyed maid;
Lived all alone in her little log hut but in the palm tree's shade,
And on the island she reigned as queen.
One day a stranger appear'd on the scene;
Said he, "Don't waste your time
Out in this awful clime,
But come with me, my pretty southern maid,
To my home across the sea".
But he went very red When she turned up her nose and said,

"I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you!
I've got one lover, and I don't want two.
What might happen there is no knowing
If he comes round, so you'd better be going,
'Cos I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you!".


ust then some cannibals came in sight with swords and spears,
Longing for something for supper that night, making ugly leers.
That queen said, "Stranger, you'd better go;
That chief in war paint, you see, is my beau".
"Oh! is that true?", he said, as to'ards the stream he fled,
And jump'd into a boat a-floating there:
He was soon clean out of sight.
He won't return again
Just to hear that girl explain,

"I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you!
I've got one lover, and I don't want two.
What might happen there is no knowing
If he comes round, so you'd better be going,
'Cos I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you!".




(Contributed by Peter Akers - January 2016)