While preparing for VBS this week, I remembered a story on The Heartland Series about Jonah and the Whale. I found the entire collection of The Heartland Series at our local library here in Clinton, and I did a quick visual scan of the back of each of the DVD cases... and found it! There it was, #26 on Volume 15, titled "Joney and the Whale."
I couldn't find a written version of the story/poem online, so I sat and watched the video to capture the audio on paper. It's definitely imperfect, but I'm happy that it now exists.
I tried to capture the language Effie Baker used while reciting this from memory. She learned it from her father, who was 14 during the Civil War. Here it is, with just a couple sentences of introduction, straight from Effie:
People nowadays, they say there ain’t such a fish that swallowed Joney.
So this is about a grandfather and he’s talking to his little grandson.
He said now buddy, get up and come here to your Pap
And I’ll tell you a story, climb up on my lap.
It’s better than the story of Daniel or Ruth
And though it’s fishy, it’s every bit the truth.
Just listen right good and I’ll tell you the tale
How Joney the prophet got caught with a whale.
The whale caught poor Joney, and bless your dear soul
It not only caught him, it swallered him whole.
Now a part of this story is awful sad
It’s about a big city that went to the bad.
And when the Lord saw that His people had such wicked ways
He said “I can’t stand ‘em but forty more days.”
So the Lord spoke to Joney and said, “Joney, you go cry
and tell that wicked city that I
give ‘em forty more days to get humbled down
and if they don’t do it I’ll tear up their town.”
But when Joney heard the Lord a’speakin’
Old Joney said “No,
I’m a too-hard-shelled Baptist and so I won’t go
Those Nineveh’s peoples are nothing to me
And then, I’m against foreign missions, you see.”
So he went down to Joppa and there in great haste
He boarded a ship for a different place.
The Lord looked down on that ship and said He,
“Why, Joney’s a-fixin to run away from me!”
So He set the wind up, oh the squeaks and the squeals
And the sea, it got rowdy and kicked up its heels.
Old Joney confessed that it was caused by his sin
So the crew threw him out and the whale took him in.
It was funny sight bud that ever you seen
That Joney rowed off in his new submarine.
And those people of Nineveh they did not repent
For the message of warning to them was mis-sent.
On a bed of green seaweeds the old whale, he tried to rest
Now, he said, I’ll sleep, while my food I’ll digest.
But he got mighty restless since the sore and the frayed
And he rumbled inside while the old prophet prayed.
On the third day the old fish rose up in his bed
His stomach tore up and a pain in his head.
He said, I must get outta here mighty quick
This filthy old sinner’s a-makin’ me sick.
He winked his eyes and flapped his tail
As he came up on a shore to deliver the mail.
He came upon a shore, looked all around
And then he vomitted old Joney clear out on the ground.
Old Joney thanked God for His mercy and grace
And then turnin’ around to the whale he made a face.
He said, “After three nights and three days you’ve found
a goold old sucker, you can’t keep him down.”
The prophet stretched up with a yawn and a sigh
Sat down in the sun for his clothing to dry.
He thought how much better his preaching would be
Since from the whale seminary he had a degree.
Having rested well and dried hisself in the sun
He set out for Nineveh almost at a run.
He reached the city about a week later.
But he preached from the time that he entered the gate
Until the whole population repented and prayed
And the hand of justice and vengeance was stayed.
Now buddy when you disobey mommy remember this tale
and when you run away from school to take off for the quail
there are varmits to getcha on sea and on land
and a boy can be swallowed a lot easier than a man.
So this is about a grandfather and he’s talking to his little grandson.
He said now buddy, get up and come here to your Pap
And I’ll tell you a story, climb up on my lap.
It’s better than the story of Daniel or Ruth
And though it’s fishy, it’s every bit the truth.
Just listen right good and I’ll tell you the tale
How Joney the prophet got caught with a whale.
The whale caught poor Joney, and bless your dear soul
It not only caught him, it swallered him whole.
Now a part of this story is awful sad
It’s about a big city that went to the bad.
And when the Lord saw that His people had such wicked ways
He said “I can’t stand ‘em but forty more days.”
So the Lord spoke to Joney and said, “Joney, you go cry
and tell that wicked city that I
give ‘em forty more days to get humbled down
and if they don’t do it I’ll tear up their town.”
But when Joney heard the Lord a’speakin’
Old Joney said “No,
I’m a too-hard-shelled Baptist and so I won’t go
Those Nineveh’s peoples are nothing to me
And then, I’m against foreign missions, you see.”
So he went down to Joppa and there in great haste
He boarded a ship for a different place.
The Lord looked down on that ship and said He,
“Why, Joney’s a-fixin to run away from me!”
So He set the wind up, oh the squeaks and the squeals
And the sea, it got rowdy and kicked up its heels.
Old Joney confessed that it was caused by his sin
So the crew threw him out and the whale took him in.
It was funny sight bud that ever you seen
That Joney rowed off in his new submarine.
And those people of Nineveh they did not repent
For the message of warning to them was mis-sent.
On a bed of green seaweeds the old whale, he tried to rest
Now, he said, I’ll sleep, while my food I’ll digest.
But he got mighty restless since the sore and the frayed
And he rumbled inside while the old prophet prayed.
On the third day the old fish rose up in his bed
His stomach tore up and a pain in his head.
He said, I must get outta here mighty quick
This filthy old sinner’s a-makin’ me sick.
He winked his eyes and flapped his tail
As he came up on a shore to deliver the mail.
He came upon a shore, looked all around
And then he vomitted old Joney clear out on the ground.
Old Joney thanked God for His mercy and grace
And then turnin’ around to the whale he made a face.
He said, “After three nights and three days you’ve found
a goold old sucker, you can’t keep him down.”
The prophet stretched up with a yawn and a sigh
Sat down in the sun for his clothing to dry.
He thought how much better his preaching would be
Since from the whale seminary he had a degree.
Having rested well and dried hisself in the sun
He set out for Nineveh almost at a run.
He reached the city about a week later.
But he preached from the time that he entered the gate
Until the whole population repented and prayed
And the hand of justice and vengeance was stayed.
Now buddy when you disobey mommy remember this tale
and when you run away from school to take off for the quail
there are varmits to getcha on sea and on land
and a boy can be swallowed a lot easier than a man.
