Lyrics:
One night I went up in a balloon,
On a voyage of discov'ry to visit the moon,
Where an old man dwells, so some people say,
“Through cutting of sticks on a Sunday,”
Up went the balloon quickly higher and higher,
Over housetop and chimney-pot, tower and spire,
I knock'd off the Monument's top very high,
And caught hold of the cross of St. Paul's going by.
chorus:
Up in a balloon,
Up in a balloon,
All among the little stars, sailing round the moon;
Up in a balloon,
Up in a balloon,
It's something awfully jolly to be
Up in a balloon.
Up, up I was borne with terrible pow'r,
At the rate of ten thousand five hundred an hour,
The air was cold, the wind blew loud,
I narrowly escap'd being chok'd by a cloud;
Still up I went, till surrounded by stars,
And such planets as Jupiter, Venus, and Mars ;
The Big and the Little Bear loudly did growl,
And the Dog Star on seeing me set up a howl.
I met shooting stars who were bent upon sport,
But who “shot” in a very strange manner I thought,
And one thing beat all my chalks I must say,
That was when I got into the Milky Way,
I counted the stars, till at last I thought
I had found out how much they were worth by the quart,
An unpolite “Aerolite” who ran 'gainst my car,
Wouldn't give “e'er a light” to light my cigar.
Next a comet went by 'midst fire like hail,
To give me a lift, I seized hold of his tail;
To where he was going I didn't enquire,
We'd gone past the moon, till we couldn't get higher;
Yes we'd got to the furthermost!!, don't think I joke,
When somehow I felt a great shock—I awoke!
When instead of balloon, moon and planets, I saw,
I'd tumbled from off my bed to the floor.
chorus:
And there was no balloon—there was no balloon,
There were not any planets, and there wasn't any moon;
So never sup too heavy or by jingo very soon
You're like to fancy you are going up in a balloon.