Pete Seeger - The People Are Scratching lyrics

Come fill up your glasses
And set yourselves down
I'll tell you a story of somebody's town
It isn't too near and it's not far away
It's not a place where I'd want to stay

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

The winter came in with a cold icy blast
It killed off the flowers and
Killed off the grass
The rabbit's were starving because
Of the freeze
They started eating the bark off the trees
Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

The farmers said
"This sort of thing just won't do
Our trees will be dead when
The rabbit's get through
We'll have to poison the rabbit's
It's clear or we'll have no crops
To harvest next year"

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

So they brought the poison
And spread it around
And soon dead rabbit's began to be found
Dogs ate the rabbit's and
The farmers just said
"We'll poison those rabbit's 'til the
Last dog is dead"

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

Up in the sky there were meat-eating fowls
The dead rabbit's poisoned the
Hawks and the owls
Thousands of field mice the
Hawks used to chase
Were multiplying all over the place

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat
The fields and the meadows
Were barren and brown
The mice got hungry and moved into town
The city folks took the farmer's advise
And all of them started to poison the mice

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

There were dead mice in all
The apartments and flats
The cats ate the mice and
The mice killed the cats
The smell was awful and I'm glad to say
I wasn't the man hired to haul them away

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

All through the country and
All through the town
There wasn't a dog or cat to be found
The fleas asked each other
"Where can we stay?"
They've been on the people from
Then 'til this day

Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat

All you small creatures that
Live in this land stay clear of the man
With the poisonous hand!
A few bails of hay might keep you alive
But he'll pay more to kill
You than let you survive
Now the people are scratching
All over the street
Because the rabbit's had nothing to eat