25. Revolutionary Tea- Shannon (WV) 1926
25 - REVOLUTIONARY TEA
Cornmunicated by Miss Margaret Neston, Oceana, Wyoming County, 1926. Obtalned from mis s Bernice Cooke, who got lt from Mrs . L. S. Shannon, Pineville, W. Va. Music noted by Mrs. Thomas Porter Eardman, Morgantown, W. Va. I who write, "This tune is absolutely authentic, as it came down through my mother fron my great, great grandfather, Christopher Doughty, who fought ln the Revolutlon. Mother sang lt to me when I was a llttle girl."
[music]
Ionian.
a b a c a b a c c
1 There was once an old lady lived over the sea,
And she was an island quoen;
Eer daughter lived off ln a new countrie,
With an ocoan of wator between.
The old lady's pookets were filled wlth gold,
But nevor contontod was she,
So she called on her daughter to pay her a tax,
0f three ponco a pound on tho tea,
0f thros pence a pound on the tea.
2 'tNow nother, doar motherr't the daughter roplled,
rrI shant t do the thing you axi
Irnr willing to pay a falr price for the tea,
But never the three penny tax.tl
'You ehallrn guoth the nother, and reddened with rago,
frFor you t re ny own daughtor r $ou ses,
And Eure ftis quite proper the daughter should payr
Her mother a tax on the tea,
Her nother a tax on the tea. tt
g And so the old lady her servant oal1ed up,
And packed off a budget of tea,
"4nd oager for three pnce a pourrd, she put in
Enough f or a large farni li e .
She ordered her servant to brlng home the tax,
Doclarlng her ohild should obey,
0r old as she was and a woman most grown,
Sherd half whlp her llfe away,
Shet d half whip hor ltfe a.walo
4 The toa was oonveyed to the daughterrs door,
.end all down by ttre ocean si.de,
And the bouncing girl poured out every pound,
In the dark and bolltng tide,
A,trd thon sho called out to the island queen,
ttO nother, dear motherrn quoth she,
rr Your tea you may have when I tl s steoped en ough ,
But nover a tax fron nne,
But never a tax from n.
A vorsion of this appears in ons of the volumos
of Father Kemp's '0ld Conoert Tunes.' The exact reference has ben
It appears ln Hall and McCreary's The Blue Book
of Favorite Songs,
edition of 1941, p. 112.