Up High and Down Low

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Up High and Down Low

Up high, on a mountain top,
Lived Billy the snow-white kid.
He jumped and hopped from rock to rock, Just like his mother did.
And down low, in a broad meadow, Lived a fleecy little lamb.
He usually followed
   Author:  Louis Slobodkin
Copyright Date:  1960
Publisher:  Macmillan
Pagination:  28 p.

his mother too. The little lamb’s name was Sam.
So Billy the Kid and Sam the Lamb, They both did what they should.
They stayed close to their mothers And were usually very good.
But early one summer morning
Before the sun was high,
Billy came down the mountainside.
(He forgot to say good-by.)
And down low in the broad meadow,
On that same summer day,
The little fat lamb named Sam
Decided to run away.
He climbed the rocky mountainside
As Billy was coming down.
They passed each other on the way.
They did not make a sound.
And when Billy reached the meadow low The sheep were all awake.
They looked at the little stranger And said, “What’s this, for goodness sake?”
And when Sam up on the mountain high Tried to take Billy’s place,
The old goats looked at him sternly When they saw his little lamb face.
And as the goats hopped all around,
Sam tried to look very busy,
But he did not feel well at all—
The high mountain made him dizzy.
And Billy down in the meadow low
Was no happier than little Sam,
Because none of the sheep around him
Believed that he was a lamb.
So Billy left the low meadow
And climbed the mountain high,
And he met Sam coming down again—
They smiled as they passed by.
And little Bill the snow-white kid Said, “Bah bah,” as he passed Sam,
And little Sam said, “Bleat, bleat,” Just like a little lamb.
When Sam came back to the meadow low And joined the other sheep,
He quickly found his mother And lay right down to sleep.
But when Billy reached the mountain top
And the sun warmed his snow-white coat,
He jumped and hopped from rock to rock—
He was the happi-est little goat!
THE END

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