314
Blockader Mamma
No title. Given in June 1948 to A. P. Hudson by the Reverend Bertram
Cooper of Chapel Hill, as "from the wilds of Moore County" (N. C).
The Reverend Mr. Cooper sings it.
I A little girl sat in a log cabin door ;
The babies were crying outright.
The mother said, 'Susie, don't wander afar;
I'll have to be gone half the night.'
2
'Oh, mammy, don't make any liquor tonight.
Sheriff Slack may be watching the still ;
I seen him today pass by on the road
And drive in the woods by the mill.'
'Hush, young un, hush,' the poor woman moaned,
'Your paw ain't never worked none ;
We ain't got nothing to eat in the house,
And the baby's got croup in his lung.'
'Oh, mammy, don't make any liquor tonight,
Sherifif Slack may be watching the still;
I've looked and I've listened and my heart's nearly st()i)ped
Every night when you start toward the mill.'
736 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
5 She went to the wood between midnight and dawn.
The woman didn't hearken to Susie's advice ;
She put on her man's shoes and pants
And was shot through the heart by the spies.
6 As they tenderly took the body back home,
A poor woman in men's overhauls,
They stopped at the door and the tears flooded down
As they heard the poor orphan child bawl :
7 'Oh, why did you make any liquor tonight?
I begged till my heart's nearly wild.
Paw brought meat and flour within half an hour
And now I'm a poor orphan child.'