THERE sat one day in quiet, | |
| By an alehouse on the Rhine, | |
| Four hale and hearty fellows, | |
| And drank the precious wine. | |
| |
| The landlord’s daughter filled their cups, | 5 |
| Around the rustic board; | |
| Then sat they all so calm and still, | |
| And spake not one rude word. | |
| |
| But when the maid departed, | |
| A Swabian raised his hand, | 10 |
| And cried, all hot and flushed with wine, | |
| “Long live the Swabian land! | |
| |
| “The greatest kingdom upon earth | |
| Cannot with that compare; | |
| With all the stout and hardy men | 15 |
| And the nut-brown maidens there.” | |
| |
| “Ha!” cried a Saxon, laughing, | |
| And dashed his beard with wine; | |
| “I had rather live in Lapland, | |
| Than that Swabian land of thine! | 20 |
| |
| “The goodliest land on all this earth, | |
| It is the Saxon land! | |
| There have I as many maidens | |
| As fingers on this hand!” | |
| |
| “Hold your tongues! both Swabian and Saxon!” | 25 |
| A bold Bohemian cries; | |
| “If there’s a heaven upon this earth, | |
| In Bohemia it lies. | |
| |
| “There the tailor blows the flute, | |
| And the cobbler blows the horn, | 30 |
| And the miner blows the bugle, | |
| Over mountain gorge and bourn.” * * * * * | |
| And then the landlord’s daughter | |
| Up to heaven raised her hand, | |
| And said, “Ye may no more contend,— | 35 |
| There lies the happiest land!” | |
| |
