312. 'Tis Now, Young Man. Give Me Attention

 

312
'Tis Now, Young Man, Give Me Attention

If Mr. Anderson's notation at the end is right this is a ballad
of local manufacture. I have not found it elsewhere.

No title. Communicated by Mr. Arnold Monteague of Collington, Dkre
county. No date given.

1 'Tis now, young man, give me attention
While I try to write a song.

While I tell you how I suffered
As my day has passed along.

2 First of all I tried in courting
And succeeded very well.

Then I thought that I would get married,
See if that wont^ better still.

3 Seven long years I tried in wedlock,
Trouble more than life could stand
When I found my wife was keeping
Company with another man.

4 For divorce, I could not get it.
For I could not get the proof.
For the one that might before me
Would not go and tell the truth.

5 Yet there is a way to fix it ;

I can leave this lonely shore,
I can plow the deep blue ocean
And return here never more.

6 Yet there is a little maiden
That I dearly hate to leave,

For my heart will burst with sorrow ;
Yet there is no one else to grieve.

7 Darling, make yourself contented,^
Study not on me away.

Study not my condition
But look on to a better day.

^ "Distiller who sold brandy and testified against them." — MS note.

 

^ The manuscript here is not clear ; this may be "went," or it may be
an abbreviated form of "wasn't."

^ The manuscript has "contended" and in 1. 3 "condushion."

 

NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS "29

Take this ring to my baby,
Tell her that her paw is dead,
That the meanness of her mother
Brought him to a watery bed.

"Napoleon Stetson wrote this."
L. W. Anderson