Bloody Miller- I. G. Greer (NC) 1915 Brown B
[From Abrams Collection/Greer Collection. Lyric Variant 4 titled. Bloody Miller or Murdering Miller; typed MS, 12 stanzas corresponds to Greer's version, Brown B. Several sheet music versions of Bloody Miller exist with the same melody. Similar to Abrams A, only 10 stanzas.
Evidently this was a popular version since there are 3 versions all beginning with the same stanza. This appears to be the oldest and is 10 stanzas, the next brown B is 12 stanzas and a version collected at Boone Elementary School (Faye Aldridge) is about 6 stanzas.
Brown B, same text, is given at bottom of this page- there are some minor text differences.
R, Matteson 2016]
Bloody Miller or Murdering Miller- Lyric variant 4, MS Abrams/Greer collections
One month ago since Christmas last,
That most unhappy day,
The devil, he persuaded me
To take her life away.
I met her at her sister's house
'Twas eight o'clock that night,
But little did that creature know
I owed her any spite.
I asked her if she'd walk with me
In the fields a little way,
That we might both so well agree
And appoint the wedding day.
As we went down a lonesome place
To the fields a little way,
I drew a stick out of the hedge
And struck her in the face.
As she came down to her bended knees,
"Oh, murderer, " she did cry,
'For Heaven's sake don't murder me,
For I am not fit to die."
And then to wash her sins away,
I took her by the hair,
And drug her to a river, near,
And left her body there.
Then to my mill, my mill, I ran,
The miller was amazed,
He slowly fixed his eyes on me
And slowly he did gaze.
"Oh, master, master, master, dear,
You look as pale as death;
Have you been running all this night,
That put you out of breath?"
"What means the blood upon your hands,
Likewise upon your clothes? "
I answered him immediately,
"By bleeding at the nose."
I snatched the candle from her hand,
And to my bed I run,
I lay there trembling all that night,
For the murder I had done.
I lay there trembling all that night,
I could not take my rest,
I could almost feel the flames of hell
Roll o'er my guilty breast.
The morning dawned, the sheriff came,
He took me to the jail,
And left me there for six long months,
And then in death to wail.
_________________
B. 'The Bloody Miller, or, The Murdering Miller.' Contributed by I. G. Greer of Boone, Watauga county, in 1915 or 1916. Fairly close in text to A. It lacks the first two stanzas, beginning with
One month ago since Christmas last,
That most unhappy day,
The devil he persuaded me
To take her life away.
Stanza 8 of A also is missing in this text. The last seven stanzas run:
6 And then, to wash her sins away,
I took her by the hair
And drug her to a river near
And left her body there.
7 Then to my mill, my mill I ran.
The miller was amazed.
He slowly fixed his eyes on me
And slowly he did gaze.
8 'Oh, master, master, master dear,
You look as pale as death.
Have you been running all this night
That put you out of breath ?
9 'What means the blood upon your hands.
Likewise upon your clothes?'
I answered him immediately,
'By bleeding at the nose.'
10 I snatched the candle from his hand
And to my bed I run.
I lay there trembling all that night
For the murder I had done.
11 I lay there trembling all that night,
I could not take my rest;
I could but feel the pains of hell
Roll o'er my guilty breast.
12 The morning dawned, the sheriff came,
He took me to my jail,
And bound me there for six long months,
And then in death to wail.