A Moravian Song- Loy (WV) 1916 Cox A
[From Folk Songs From the South; John Harrington Cox, 1925. His notes follow. Another version with the same title appears in the Brown Collection (version G). Barry said this version was recognized in Maine (Fred Morse) and gives Cox A in his BBM, 1929.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Folk-Songs of the South- John Harrington Cox 1925
14. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL (Child, No. 79)
Seven variants have been recovered in West Virginia, under the titles: "A Moravian Song," "Lady Gay," "The Three Little Babes," and "A Lady Gay" (cf. Cox, xlv, 160). They all belong to the same version, and of the three versions printed by Child, they resemble most A. The best of the West Virginia copies are practically identical with the American text printed in Child V, 294. The main lines of the story are these: A lady who had three fair children sent them away to the North country to school, where, in short time, they died. She prays to the King in heaven to send them down to her, and about Christmas time they appear. She spreads a bountiful table for them, but they refuse to eat because they have food divine. She makes up a downy bed for them, with clean sheets and a golden spread, but they command her to take it off because it is vanity and sin. At the break of day they depart.
The prayer of the mother to have the children come back is not found in Child A. Cf. Child C 1. West Virginia texts A 9 and D 8 indicate the children come back to forbid obstinate grief, as the dead often do. This motive is not found in the Child versions. An ancient law compelled ghosts to return to their graves at the crowing of the cock. This law is observed in the Child versions,
but in the West Virginia variants they act in obedience to the will of their Savior. A curious combination of the two compelling forces is found in West Virginia B 8.
For references to English and American versions see Journal, xxx, 305. Add Campbell and Sharp, No. 19; Pound, No. 7; Wyman MS., No. 16 (Kentucky); Minish MS. (North Carolina); Bulletin, No. 3, p. 5; No. 9, p. 6.
A. "A Moravian Song." Contributed by Miss Bettie R. Loy, Glebe, Hampshire County, February 17, 1916. She writes: "I am sending you a song that my mother learned of her mother, who was of Dutch descent, but either she or her parents learned it of a Moravian preacher and she called it a Moravian song."
1 There was a lady, a fair lady,
And she had fair children three;
She sent them away to the North country,
To be taught their grammaree.
2 They 'd been gone but a short time,
About three weeks and a day,
When death, swift death, came hastening along,
And took those pretty ones away.
3 "There's a king in heaven, I know,
A king that wears a crown;
Pray send me down my children dear,
To-night or in the morning soon."
4 It was about the New Year's time,
The nights being long and cold,
When lo! she saw her three little ones,
Coming down to their mother's home.
5 She spread a table bounteously,
And on it spread bread and wine,
Saying, "Come eat and drink, children dear,
Come eat and drink of mine."
6 "We want none of your bread, mother,
And we want none of your wine;
For we are children of the King,
We have food and drink divine."
7 She spread a downy bed for them,
And on it spread clean sheets;
And on it she spread a golden spread,
That they might for the better sleep.
8 "Take it off, take it off," the oldest said,
" 'T is vanity and sin;
And woe, woe be to this wicked world,
Since pride has so entered in!
9 "Place marble at our heads, mother,
And cold clay at our feet;
For all those tears that have been shed
Shall but wet our winding sheet."