{"id":5582,"date":"2009-04-27T18:49:59","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T22:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=5582"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:15:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T22:15:37","slug":"song-of-the-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/5582","title":{"rendered":"“Song of the Grass”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When they could sing this very well, they learned another. This was the song of the grass… — These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 23, “Barnum Walks”<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\nI<\/span>n These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, one of the town activities participated in by Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder during their courtship was singing school. There was a singing school held in De Smet from February through April 1884, conducted by a Mr. Forbush. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that singing school was taught by Mr. Clewett; J.H. Clewett had taught the De Smet school classes during the spring 1883 term. A homesteader in neighboring Clark County, Mr. Clewett often lived in De Smet until moving to California in the 1890s. It is possible that he taught a singing school that was never mentioned in the local newspapers.<\/p>\n

Laura’s singing school book was called The Conqueror<\/em>; it was written by C.E. Leslie and R.H. Randall and published in 1880 by The Chicago Music Company. Leslie wrote a number of hymnals and singing school books, and he traveled widely, promoting his program and holding classes in a number of states. Many of the songs in The Conqueror<\/em> were composed by Leslie or Randall. Laura’s singing school book was purchased for seventy-five cents and is today on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder \/ Rose Wilder Lane Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. The book begins as Wilder wrote in These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, with an explanation of notes, rests, and clefs. It then continues with simple exercises, starting with “do re mi fa sol la si do” and moving on to simple songs.<\/p>\n

Wilder went into more detail about singing school in both the Pioneer Girl<\/em> manuscripts and the manuscript for These Happy Golden Years<\/em>. Obviously an important and pleasant memory from her young adulthood, she included complete lyrics for a number of songs which were omitted from the published These Happy Golden Years. “Song of the Grass” was written by R.H. Randall.<\/p>\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\tSONG OF THE GRASS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. All around the open door;\n
Smiling on the rich and poor;\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.\n
Creeping by the noisy brook,\n
Fringing ev’ry shady nook.\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.<\/p>\n

2. By the sunny riverside;\n
Where the pleasant waters glide;\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.\n
Creeping where the children play\n
In the bright and merry may.\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.<\/p>\n

3. In the noisy city street,\n
Pleasant faces there I meet,\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.\n
Cheering with a skillful art,\n
Making glad the heavy heart.\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping ev’ry-where.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\tSONG OF THE GRASS<\/strong>\n(from These Happy Golden Years<\/em>)<\/p>\n

All around the open door,\n
–Smiling on the rich and poor,\n
Here I come! Here I come!\n
Creeping everywhere.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
   <\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

   <\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

     
\n
\n“The Song of the Grass”<\/strong> (THGY 23)
\n     “All around the open door, smiling on the rich and poor”
\n     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Song from Leslie and Randall’s The Conqueror, page 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[628],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5582"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17669,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582\/revisions\/17669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}