Boston Girl- Ray Bohanan (TN) 1929 Henry B
[From Mellinger Henry's "Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands," J.J. Augustin, 1938. His notes follow.
This version has the Scotch "handkerchief" and aside from the location of "Boston," resembles the standard traditional versions.
R. Matteson 2016]
64 THE WEXFORD GIRL (THE CRUEL MILLER) See Cox, No. 90 {A "The Tragedy;" B "Johnny McDowell"); Hudson, Journal, XXXIX, 125 {A and B "The Oxford Girl;" C "The Expert Girl;" D "The Shreveport Girl"); Belden, Journal, XXV, 11; Henry, Journal, XLII, pp. 247, 290; Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 115; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, June 19, 1927. Hudson's version is included also in his Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore, Ann Arbor, 1928, No. 24. See also Flanders and Brown, p. 88.
B. "Boston Girl." Obtained from Ray Bohanan, Indian Gap, Route #15 Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee, August, 1929.
1. I courted a girl in Boston,
A girl that love me well.
A many of a Sunday afternoon
Together we would dwell.
2. We took a walk one Sunday;
We walked a mile or more;
I drew a stick from under a tree;
I knocked that Maley[1] girl down.
3. Down on her knees she begged me;
She begged me for her life,
Says, "Willie, dear, don't kill me here;
I am not prepared to die."
4. I listened not to her pleading;
I struck o'er and o'er
Until all the ground around her,
Was in a bloody gore.
5. 1 runned my hand through her yellow hair;
I dragged her down the road;
1 threw her in the river
That flows through Boston town.
6. 1 went up to my father's house
At twelve o'clock that night.
My mother met me at the door
In such an awful fright.
7. Says, "Son, oh, son, what have you done
That blooded your hands and clothes?"
The answer that I made to her
Was, "Bleeding at the nose."
8. I asked her for a candle
To light me off to bed,
And also for a handkerchief
To bind my aching head.
9. I rolled and tumbled the whole night through;
No slumber could I find;
The thoughts of that poor Boston girl
Was running on my mind.
10. They took me on suspicion;
They bound me to Boston jail;
My friends and my relations,
They could not go my bail.
11. Her sister swore my life away;
She swore without a doubt;
She swore that I was the very one,
Who took her sister out.
1. merry