142. Mama Sent Me to the Spring


142
Mama Sent Me to the Spring

This is a fragment of the song 'Jumbo' reported from Kentucky
(JAFL XLix 222). The Archive of American Folk Song has
recordings of it from North Carolina and Virginia. It is prob-
ably a derivative of the Scottish song 'Whistle o'er the Lave o't,'
printed in the 1776 edition of Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish
Songs.

'Mama Sent Me to the Spring.' Contributed by Miss Florence Coleman
of Durham in July 1922.

 

Mama sent me to the spring,
Told me not to stay.
I fell in love with a pretty little boy
And stayed till Christmas Day.