15. The Cherry Tree Carol (Child 54)
Of the three carols admitted by Child to his ballad collection this is the only one that has persisted in the folk memory in America. See Davis's headnote in TBV. To the list of its occurrences there given may be added Scotland (LL 45), Hampshire (JFSS in 260), Cornwall (JFSS v 11-12 and 321-2), Saskatchewan (JFSS viii 229-30), Maine (BBM 446, a trace only). Vermont (CSV 48-50), Kentucky (SharpK i 92-4, FSSH 59, JAFL xlix 45-6, li 15-16), Tennessee (BTFLS viii 78), Florida (FSF 262-3), and Missouri (OFS I 88). In the carol — expressly in some texts, by implication in others — the unborn child speaks from the womb; in the apocryphal gospel from which the story derives the incident occurs, not before the birth of Jesus, but during the flight into Egypt, and the tree is a palm, not a cherry.
A. No title. Mrs. Sutton secured this from the singing of a little girl in the Miller's Gap school, Madison county. It was near Christmas time, and Mrs. Sutton started to teach the children 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'; whereupon one of them said "I know a tune about Bethlehem" and proceeded to sing the following.
1. Joseph and Mary walked one day
All in an orchard good.
The trees were full of cherries
As red as any blood.
2. Mary spoke to Joseph,
Her words were soft and kind:
'Pick me one cherry, husband,
For they do fill my mind.'
3 Then Joseph answered Mary,
His words was most unkind:
'Let your lover pick your cherries;
I care not what's on your mind.'
4 And then the little baby spoke
Unto the cherry bough:
'Bend down your branch to my mother
And give her cherries now.'
5 Then all the cherry tree bowed down
Unto sweet Mary's hand.
And she cried out, 'See, Joseph,
I have cherries at my command.'
6 Old Joseph was ashamed
That he had done Mary wrong.
And told her to be cherry [1]
And not to feel cast down.
7 And all the stones in Bethlehem,
In the streets and in the wall,
Cried out in praise of Mary,
And loud they cried to all.
1. Evidently for "cheery." Did the child confuse the two words?
'Song.' Communicated, probably in 1922, by Mrs. Nilla Lancaster of Goldsboro, Wayne county. This runs fairly close to Child's A version which is from the west of England. The chief differences are in the concluding stanzas.
1. Old Joseph was an old man,
An old man was he.
He married virgin Mary,
The queen of Galilee.
2. As Joseph and Mary
Were walking one day,
'Here are apples, here are cherries,
Enough to behold.'
3. Then Mary sjxjke to Joseph,
So meek and so mild:
'Joseph, gather me some cherries,
For I am with child.'
4. Then Joseph flew in anger,
In anger flew he:
'Let the father of the baby
Gather cherries for thee.'
5. Then Jesus spoke a few words,
A few words spoke he:
'Let my mother have some cherries.
Bow low down, cherry tree.'
6. The cherry tree bowed low down.
Bowed low down to the ground.
And Mary gathered cherries
While Joseph stood around.
7. Then Joseph took Mary
All on his right knee:
'Oh, what have I done?
Lord have mercy on me !'
8. Then Joseph took Mary
All on his left knee:
'Oh, tell me, little baby,
When thy birth-day will be.*
9. 'On the sixth day of January
My birth-day will be,
When the stars in the elements
Shall tremble with glee.'