The People Are Scratching
Pete Seeger

Come fill up your glasses and set yourselves down.
I'll tell you a story of somebody's town.
It isn't too near and it's not far away.
It's not a place where I'd want to stay.

[Chorus:]
Now the people are scratching all over the street
Because the rabbits had nothing to eat.

The winter came in with a cold icy blast.
It killed off the flowers and killed off the grass.
The rabbits were starving because of the freeze.
They started eating the bark off the trees.

[Chorus]

The farmers said, This sort of thing just won't do.
Our trees will be dead when the rabbits get through.
We'll have to poison the rabbits, it's clear;
Or we'll have no crops to harvest next year.

[Chorus]

So they brought the poison and spread it around.
And soon dead rabbits began to be found.
Dogs ate the rabbits and the farmers just said,
We'll poison those rabbits 'til the last dog is dead.

[Chorus]

Up in the sky there were meat-eating fowls.
The dead rabbits poisoned the hawks and the owls.
Thousands of field mice the hawks used to chase
Were multiplying all over the place.

[Chorus]

The fields and the meadows were barren and brown.
The mice got hungry and moved into town.
The city folks took the farmer's advise
And all of them started to poison the mice.

[Chorus]

There were dead mice in all the apartments and flats.
The cats ate the mice and the mice killed the cats.
The smell was awful and I'm glad to say
I wasn't the man hired to haul them away.

[Chorus]

All through the country and all through the town
There wasn't a dog or cat to be found.
The fleas asked each other, Where can we stay?
They've been on the people from then 'til this day.

[Chorus]

All you small creatures that live in this land
Stay clear of the man with the poisonous hand!
A few bails of hay might keep you alive
But he'll pay more to kill you than let you survive.

[Chorus]


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Lyrics by Pete Seeger

  Abiyoyo   All Mixed Up   Amazing Grace   America the Beautiful   Barbara Allen   Barbara Allen [*]   Big Rock Candy Mountain   Big Rock Candy Mountain   Black Is the Color   Blue Skies   Bought Me a Cat   Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)   Buffalo Gals   Camptown Races   Careless Love   Carol of the Beasts   Casey Jones   Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies   Danville Girl   Dark as a Dungeon   Down by the Riverside [*]   Down by the Riverside [#]   Down in the Valley   Draft Dodger Rag   East Virginia Blues   Equinoxial   Freight Train   Goodnight, Irene   Guantanamera   Harry Simms   How Can I Keep from Singing?   I Come and Stand at Every Door   I Know A Little Girl   If I Had a Hammer   If I Had a Hammer [#]   In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)   John Hardy   Johnny Riley   Johnny Riley   Kumbaya   Lou Marsh   Maple Syrup Time   Michael, Row the Boat Ashore   Michael, Row the Boat Ashore [*]   Midnight Special   My Dirty Stream (The Hudson River Song)   Never Wed an Old Man   Never Wed an Old Man [#]   Of Time and Rivers Flowing   Oh, Had I a Golden Thread   Oh, Susanna   Oh, What a Beautiful City!   Oh, What a Beautiful City!   Old Time Religion   On Top of Old Smokey   On Top of Old Smokey   On Top of Old Smokey [*]   Over the Rainbow   Pretty Boy Floyd   River Of My People   Russian Song/Ode to Joy   Sicillian Tarantella   Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child   St. Louis Blues   Swing Low, Sweet Chariot   The First Noel   The Foolish Frog   The Foolish Frog   The Foolish Frog [#]   The House of the Rising Sun   The Power and the Glory   The Sinking of the Reuben James   The Wayfaring Stranger   The Wreck of the Old 97   This Land Is Your Land   This Land Is Your Land [*]   This Land Is Your Land [Live]   This Old Man   Those Three Are on My Mind   To My Old Brown Earth   Two from Shakespeare: Full Fathom Five/Perchance t...   Tzena, Tzena, Tzena   Waist Deep in the Big Muddy [*]   Well May the World Go   Where Have All the Flowers Gone [#]   Which Side Are You On?

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