Page 21 - Searching for "Donald from Bras d'Or"

ISSUE : Issue 39

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1985/6/1

[ Donald They signed the blooming Armistice And stopped the little war, And then they said to Donald! • Boy Go back to old Bras d'Or. But Donald said • "Not on your life. I've seen that place before • I want a soft and easy job, I'll ask for nothing more." Bud Then Donald met "best ever" And "best ever" was Bud Hull, The optimist and pianist The slaughterer of the dull. The lover of mankind The advocate of song. The best old soul to travel with 1 On journeys short or long. Bud ?? , 1 When Donald listened to the noise That Buddy Hull could make. 1 He said I never knew before • 1 He'd keep a boat awake • 1 But with four chords and a chorus • 1 In German, French and Yank • 1 He'd save the Grand Piano 1 In case the steamer sank. Vincent When Donald he got thirsty Then was California's peer Advancing front and center With some Rhine wine and some beer • He shortened up the evenings And lengthened out the drinks So that all that e'er was needed Was another forty winks. Paul When Donald met Paul Kieffer On the "Empress of Bras d'Or" He found a poker player And a famous auctionor • He sold off to his friends And auctioned in the pool The miles and knots that day by day The Empress beat the mule. Donald So Donald walked from place to place; His feet were getting sore • At last in old Schenectady He saw an easy chore • A President was needed bad, A man six feet or more • Said Donald, I can do that job And sing of Old Bras d'Or. Bill Stuart wrote back to Bud Hull, ing him four more verses: s end- It is splendid to have a word from you and the stanzas you send of the immortal song anent Donald. This song bids fair to be adopted as the marching song of the embattled hgsts of Rhodes scholars. As such it will doubtless be, and indeed has already been, connected with numerous other exploits com? parable in their way with some of those of the or? iginal twenty-fifth. The stanzas you send recall to mind many pleasant incidents and associations of that delightful voy? age on the Empress of Scotland. As might naturally be expected, the return voyage on the Montrose produced additional stanzas which I am enclosing. No. 1 and No. 2 evoked by the re? visit to Oxford, are the work of Donald himself, as you will recognize at once. Ellen and I gave a rendition a few days ago before a family audience which included our younger son aged four. The next day it developed that he had been pondering in the meanwhile upon No. 1, for he made the following in? quiry: "What kind of pictures did Donald write on the walls?" Until we re-read the stanza we could not make out what had put this notion iij his head. No. 3 is a memorial contributed by Ellen on the terrible execution done by Donald among the female hearts on the Montrose. When the time came for Don? ald to leave us at Quebec, it developed that the ladies of our immediate party (and doubtless numer? ous others on board) could hardly bear at all to have him go. No. 3 was sent to him in his native Bras d'Or after the parting. He thereupon replied with No. 4, showing that he agrees fully that he is the devil with the ladies. 1) When Donald came to Oxford He strolled about the halls He marked the noble buildings And all their crumbling walls. It's none so bad, ses Donald For the good old days of yore But man ye really ought to see The new high school in Bras d'Or 2) In the quad one morning Donald met A man with mutton chops Ses he, "Where do I learn-this Greek And the selling price of hops?" Ses the man, "I'm nothing but your scout As ye surely must have seen." "I begs your pardon," Donald said, "I thought ye was the dean." SAVE YOUR WINDSHIELD! STONE DAMAGED WINDSHIELDS RESTORED FOR FREE! Your Insurance Company Pays All DAY 564-4527 NIGHT Now full auto glass service, if your windshield is beyond surgery MAIN CLINIC: 6 LIBERTY ST.. SYDNEY (Free House Calls) The Windshield Surgeon PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring: Fully Licensed Dining Room * Guest House * Swinaning Pool Ocean-Side Campsites * Laundromat * Mini-Mart QOQ-OOQQ Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail ZfCyJ C.C.JJ Halfway Between Baddeck 'and Ingonish -(21)

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