My dear friend Gordon Bok tells me that he got the inspiration from this song from a small otter which used to hang around Sherman’s Point, Camden, Maine.
I go down to the Brandy tree
Take my nose and my tail with me
All for the world and the wind to see
And never come back no more
Down the meadowmarsh, deep and wide
Tumble the tangle by my side
All for the westing wind to run
And slide in the summer rain
Sun come follow my happy way
Wind come walk beside me
Moon on the mountain, go with me
A wonderous way I know
I go down to the windy sea
The little gray seal will play with me
Slide on the rock and dive in the bay
And sleep on the ledge at night
But the seal don’t try to tell me how
To fish in the windy blue
Seal been fishin’ for a thousand years
And he knows that I have, too
When the frog goes down to the mud to sleep
And the lamprey hides in the boulders deep
I take my nose and my tail and go
A hundred thousand hills
Sun come follow my happy way
Wind come walk beside me
Moon on the mountain, go with me
A wonderous way I know
Someday down by the Brandy tree
I’ll hear the shepherd call for me
Call me to leave my happy ways
And the shining world I know
Sun on the hill, come go with me
My days have all been free
The pipes come laughin’ down the wind
And that’s the way I go
That’s the way for me