31. The Crafty Farmer (Folk-Songs of the South- 1925; Footnotes moved to the end of each version.)
31. THE CRAFTY FARMER (Child, No. 283)
Communicated by Miss Mary Meek Atkeson, Morgantown, Monongalia County, 1916; obtained by Mr. Fred Smith, Glenville, Gilmer County, from Paul Farnsworth, who got it from his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Pickens, Weston, Lewis County. It was told to her by a soldier during the Civil War. The ballad has no local title. Barring verbal differences of no special significance,
the first fifteen stanzas are the same as the first fifteen stanzas of Child A. Stanzas 1 7 and 19 are not to be found in any of the Child versions. The other stanzas agree with the remaining stanzas of Child A, but with a slight difference in the order of arrangement. Reported by Cox, xlvi, 145.
No American text of this ballad has been previously printed so far as I know. For American texts of "The Yorkshire Bite," a parallel to "The Crafty Farmer," see Barry, Journal, xxm, 451 (Boston); Kittredge, Journal, xxx, 367 (Plymouth, Massachusetts; from Child MSS., xxvn, 188 [1]). For references see Journal, xxx, 367. There is an early nineteenth-century broadside of the "Bite" (Providence, Rhode Island), and the piece is reported from North Carolina (F. C. Brown, p. 7), probably from Tennessee (Reed Smith, Journal, xxvni, 199), and from Michigan (Jones).
1 This story I'm going to sing,
I hope it will give you content,
Concerning a silly old man,
That was going to pay his rent.
2 As he was a-riding along,
Along all on the highway,
A gentleman-thief overtook him,
And thus unto him did say:
3 "O, well overtaken, old man,
O, well overtaken," said he.
"Thank you kindly, sir," says the old man,
"If you be for my company."
4 "How far are you this way?"
It made the old man to smile :
"To tell you the truth, kind sir,
I'm just a-going twa mile.
5 "I am but a silly old man,
Who farms a piece of ground;
My half-year rent, kind sir,
Just comes to forty pound.
6 "But my landlord's not been at home,
I've not seen him this twelve month or more;
It makes my rent to be large,
I've just to pay him fourscore."
7 "You should not have told anybody,
For thieves are ganging many;
If they were to light upon you,
They would rob you of every penny. "
8 "0, never mind," says the old man,
"Thieves I fear on no side;
My money is safe in my bags,
In the saddle on which I ride."
9 As they were riding along,
And riding a-down a ghyll,
The thief pulled out a pistol,
And bade the man stand still.
10 The old man was crafty and false,
As in this world are many;
He flung his old saddle o'er t' hedge,
And said, "Fetch it, if thou 'It have any."
11 The thief got off his horse,
With courage stout and bold,
To search this old man's bags,
And gave him his horse to hold.
12 The old man put his foot in the stirrup,
And he got on astride;
He set the thief's horse in a gallop,
You need not bid the old man ride.
13 "O stay! O stay!" says the thief,
"And thou half my share shalt have!"
"Nay, marry, not I," quoth the old man,
"For once I've bitten a knave."
14 This thief he was not content,
He thought these must be bags;
So he up with his rusty old sword,
And chopped the old saddle to rags.
15 The old man galloped and rode,
Until he was almost spent ;
Till he came to his landlord's house,
And paid his whole year's rent.
16 He opened the rogue's portmantle;
It was glorious to behold;
There was five hundred pounds in money,
And five hundred in gold.
17 His landlord it made him to stare,
When he did the sight behold;
" Where did you get the white money,
And where get the yellow gold?"
18 "I met a fond fool by the way,
I swapped horses and gave him no boot;
But never mind," says the old man,
T got a fond fool by the foot."
19 "But now you're grown cramped and old,
Nor fit to travel about."
"O, never mind," says the old man,
"I can give those [1] old bones a root.[2] "
20 As he was a-riding hame,
And a-down a narrow lane,
He spied his mare tied to a tree,
And said, "Tile, thou 'It now gae hame."
21 And when that he got hame,
And told his wife what he 'd done,
She rose and she donned her clothes,
And about the house did run.
22 She sung and she danced and she sung,
And she sung with merry devotion:
"If ever our daughter gets wed,
It will help to enlarge her portion."
1 Mistake, probably, for these.
2 For rout, a vigorous movement.