Bluegrass Messengers

Brown Collection VII. Folk Lyric

VIII FOLK LYRIC (Content)

248. The Inconstant Lover 271

249. The Turtle-Dove 274

250. The Wagoner's Lad 275

251. Sourwood Mountain 279

252. Pretty Saro 285

253. Old Smoky 287

254. Little Sparrow 290

255. Kitty Kline 293

256. All Around The  Mountain Charming Betsy 297

257. The Blue-Eyed Boy 298

258. The False True-Lover 299

259. I'll Hang My Hat on a Willow Tree 304

260. Red River Valley 305

261. The Slighted Sweetheart 306

262. The Slighted Girl 308

263. The Pale Wildwood Flower 309

264. Storms Are on the Ocean 311

265. There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat 313

266. Bury Me in the Garden 313

267. The Weeping Willow 314

268. Down by the Weeping Willow Tree 317

269. The Gumtree Canoe 318

270. The Indian Hunter 319

271. Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye 319

272. I'm Tired of Living Alone 320

273. Will You Love Me When Fm Old? 321

274. Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye 322

275. Somebody 323

276. You, You, You 325

277. Cold Mountains 325

278. My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains 326

279. Must I Go to Old Virginia? 327

280. Red, White, and Blue 328

281. Down in the Valley (Birmingham Jail) 330

282. 1 Sent My Love a Letter 33^

283. In the Pines, Where the Sun Never Shines 332

284. Bonnie Blue Eyes 334

285. The Midnight Dew 337

286. Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl 339

287. Darling Little Pink 342

288. Billy My Darling 342

289. Seeing Nelly Home 343

290. Troubled in Mind 344

291. Cornbread When I'm Hungry 345

292. Lonesome Road 347

293. You Lovers All. to You T Call 348

294. When First I Seen This Lovely Queen 349

295. Sweet Birds 350

296. Going Back West 'Fore Long 353

297. You Caused Me to Lose My Mind 353

298. I Wish That Girl Was Mink 353

299. Cripple Creek 354

300. My Martha Ann 355

301. High-Topped Shoes 355

302. Who's Gonna Love You, Honey? 356

303. Oh. Where Is My Sweetheart? 357

304. Like an Owl in the Desert 359

305. The Lonesome Dove 359

306. By By, My Honey 360

307. I Love Little Willie, 1 Do, Mamma 361

308. The Lords of Creation 363

309. Poor Married Man 364

310. The Black-Eyed Daisy 366

311. Black-Eyed Susie 366

312. A Housekeeper's Tragedy 367

313. Kissing Song 368

314. My Mammy Don't Love Me 369

315. I Wondered and I Wondered 370

316. M\' Mammy Told Me 370

317. Oh. Honey, Where You Been So Long? 371

318. Away Out On the Mountain 371

319. The Garden Gate 372

320. Susy Gal 372

321. Josephus and Bohunkus 372 

322. Leather Breeches 374

323. Old Aunt Katy 375

324. Kindling Wood 376

325. Mother, May I Go Out to Swim? 376

326. River's Up and Still A-Rising 376

327. Little Brown Hands 377

VIII. FOLK LYRIC

BESIDES BALLADS, which tell a story, and the several sorts  of songs dealt with in sections LVIL there is in our collection,  as in folk songs generally, a large body of songs that may conveniently be called folk lyric. They deal most often — not always —with some aspect of love between the sexes. But they tell no story. Indeed, they often have no definite theme; they are medleys, inconsequent, and their component stanzas interchange freely from song to song. They are made up of images, figures, fancies strung together on a tune or a mood, and even the mood is likely to change
within the limits of a single text. Certain images are especially
beloved: the call of the cuckoo, the castle (or cabin) on the mountain top, the whistle of a distant train, the turtle dove flitting from pine to pine mourning for its true love, chickens crowing on Sour-
wood Mountain, the willow tree, the leaves that wither, flowers
that fade, the love letter, the "who will shoe your little foot, and
who will glove your hand" of 'The Lass of Roch Royal,' and others.
Some of the songs seem to be as completely stream-of -consciousness
stuff as Tristram Shandy or Ulysses. Of these it might be said with more plausibility than of any other form of folk song that das Volk dichtct. The images sometimes go far back in English folk song, sometimes, as in "Sourwood Mountain,' seem to be original in the
Southern mountains.

Along with the older and more authentic folk lyric exist many songs and bits of song that were originally popular sentimental
ditties but have been passed from mouth to mouth so long that
they have become folk song of a sort. Some of them are by known
authors, some are relics of the minstrel stage. An attempt has
been made here to pick out those that have acquired something like folk currency, relegating the others to a list in the appendix.

The humorous songs included in this division are generally of less interest than the love songs. Some are from the minstrel or
vaudeville stage, some arc familiar as college songs, some are rigmaroles or nonsense songs. But even in the field of humor the best pieces, and probably the oldest, deal with the perennial prob lems of the relations between the sexes: 'The Lords of Creation' tells how and why the women will always control the men, in 'I Love Little Willie' a girl demurely relates the stages of her successful intrii,nie, and ''VUv Poor Married Man" (k->cril)e> liis miserable plight. But none of them is comparable in worth as folk
song with such songs as "The Inconstant Lover' or 'The Wagoner's Lad' or "Little Sparrow' or "Sourwood Mountain.'

248 The Inconstant Loner

Of the many folk lyrics, or fragments of folk lyric, on this theme, it is convenient to assemble some under this title. They are
linked together by the recurrence of certain images, motives — which,
however, may also appear in fairly fixed connection with other
motives and images and are accordingly, in that case, presented m
this volume under other titles. See BS.M 473-4. and add to the
references there given X'irginia (FSV 82-3), Arkansas (OLS i 270-1), Missouri (OFS i 271-2). Indiana (BSI 346-7, SFLQ iii
204-5), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii io-i, from Kentucky). It per-
haps goes back to the Scottish 'The Poor Stranger' (Christie 11
220-1), of which according to Kittredge (JAFL xxx 346) Pitts
printed a London broadside in the last century. In this country
it frequently blends with or takes up stanzas from 'The Cuckoo' (as
in stanza 4 of A and stanza i of E in our texts). Our E is very
close to Cox's 'A Warning to Girls' ( FSmW\' 37-8)- See also
'Prettv Saro' and 'Old Smoky,' below.

 

'Forsaken Lover.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton, who does not give the
name of her informant or the date and place, but notes : "I was so thank-
ful for this show of spirit in one of the mournful ballads that 1 told the
old lady I liked it best of all her songs. I asked her what 'unconscious
lover" meant. She said, "A man that don't have no conscience, and
the most of 'em don't.' "

1 I'll take off this black dress. I'll put on the green;
For I am forsaken. and I'm only nineteen.

2 Oh. meeting is a pleasure, and parting is grief.
An unconscious lover is worse than a thief.

3 He'll court vou. and kiss you, and get your heart warm;
As .soon as your back's turned he'll laugh you to scorn.

4 A sparrow's a pretty bird, she sings as she flies.
She brings vou good tidings and tells you no lies.

5 Forsaken. forsaken, forsaken am I,
But he's shore mistaken if he thinks I will cry.

B. 'Going to Georgia.' From tlie manuscript book of songs of Miss Edith
Walker of Boone, Watauga county. Not dated. N.C.F.. Vnl. TIT. (20)

1 I'm going to Georgia. I'm going to roam,
I'm going to Georgia to make it my home.

2 Young ladies, take warning, take warning by me,
]3un't never put dependence in a green growing tree.

3 The leaves they will wither, the flowers they will die ;
A young man will fool you, like one has fooled I.

4 They'll hug you and kiss you and tell you more lies
Than the leaves on the timber and the stars in the skies.

5 My father is a drunkard, my mother is dead,

l\lv husband's off gambling; Lord, I wish I was dead.

6 Your grave it will moulder and turn into dust.
There's not one in twenty a poor girl can trust.

C. 'Young Girls, Take Warning.' Secured from Mrs. Loraine Iseley Pridgen of Durham in 1923.

1 Young girls, take warning, take warning from me ;
Don't put your dependence in a green growing tree.

2 For the leaves they will wither, the roots they will die ;
The young boys will leave you, 'cause one has left 1.

3 They will hug you, they will kiss you, they will tell you more lies
Than cross ties on railroads and stars in the skies.

4 I once had a lover as dear as my life.
And oft did he promise for to make me his wife.

5 I left my poor daddy against his commands,
I left my poor mother a-wringing her hands.

6 And now I'm unhappy, I am sick on my bed;
My husband's off' gambling ; Lord, 1 wish 1 was dead.

7 I'm going away to Georgia. I am going away to roam,
I'm going away to Georgia for to make it my home.

D. 'We Loved, but We Parted.' Reported by A. C. Jordan of Durham as received from his brother, who said that "as a small hoy out in Orange
county, Nortli Carolina, he lieard the song sung i)y an old Negri), June
Vaniiook, and later by neiglil)orh(K)d iioys who played the banjo." The
first three stanzas lielong ratlier with 'We Have Met and We Have
Parted,' and tlie fiftii to another folk lyric, 'Poor Stranger a Thousand
Miles from Home' (HSM 487); hut the fourth stanza is a persistent
fe;itin'e of "The Inconstant Lover.'

1 We l(i\(.'(l, hut ])arU'(l ; wIkmi sIk' said goodbye
She swore that she loved me until she would die.

2 Then you came along, while I was away,
She went and f(jroot me. just like folks all say.

3 Now you think she lo\-es you. Dut just wait and see;
I'^or she will forget you like she forgot me.

4 She'll hug you. she'll kiss \-ou. she'll tell you more lies
'idian the cross-ties on the railroad or the stars in the skies.

5 ( io huild nie a log cabin on the motnitain so high.

\\ here the wikl goose can't hnd me nor hear mv ]M)or cry.

E. 'Cuckoo Is a Pretty Little Bird.' From the John Birch Blaylock Collection, made in Caswell and adjoining counties in the years 1927-32. Here, for the first time in our collection, the cuckoo stanza appears in its
normal form. For stanza 6 see BSM 487 and 488. and compare stanza
5 of version D above. With stanza 5 compare 'Seven Long Years I've
Been Married,' p. 56, and with stanza 4 'Troubled in Mind,' ji. 344.

1 Cuckoo is a pretty bird.
She sings as she flies.

She'll bring you good tidings.
She'll tell you no lies.

2 I once loved a fond young man
As dear as my life,

And ofttimes he'd promise
To make me his wife.

3 He fulfilled his promise ;
He made me his wife.
Now see what I've come to
By changing my life.

4 It's trouble, it's trouble.
It's trouble on my mind ;
If trouble don't kill me
I'll sure live a long time.

5 My children are crying.
They're crying for bread.
My husband's off gambling —
Lord. I wish I was dead.

6 ril build me a castle
Un the mountain so high
Where the dear Lord can see me
And hear my poor cry.

7 Young ladies, young ladies,
Take warning from me;
Never put your dependence
In a green growing tree.

8 For the leaves they will wither,
The roots they will die.

A young man will fool you.
For one has fooled I.

 

I'm going to (leorgia,
I'm going to Rome,
I'm going to Georgia
And call it my home.

F. 'Little Sparrow.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton as a fragment of the song
so called, but it belongs rather to The Inconstant Lover.'

1 Young woman, young woman, take warning from me.
Don't put your affections on no green growing tree.

2 He'll swear that he loves you, he'll tell you more lies
Than there's ties on the railroad and stars in the skies.

 

249
The Turtle-Dove

The turtle-dove is a recurrent figure in the folk lyric of love
and has been for a long time. In England it appears in a ballad of
the seventeenth century {Roxhurghc Ballads vii ^22) and in our
own time in Sussex (JFSS iv 286-90) and in Dorset (JFSS iii
86-8) ; Scotland has a song (Christie 11 164-5) containing not only
this but many of the other elements of traditional love lyric cur-
rent in the United States; in this country it appears in songs from
Virginia (SharpK 11 T16, SCSM 316), North Carolina (SharpK
II 113-14), and Missouri (BSM 479, 481. 482, 486), and doubtless
elsewhere. Mrs. Steely reports it from the Ebenezer connnunity
in Wake county. Our text contains another element of folk lyric,
that of going up on a mountain; see 'Old .Smoky' and 'The Incon-
stant Lover' in this volume and B.SM 487.

'Little Turtle Dove.' As sung by Letch Reynolds, in Sandy Mush
township. Buncombe county ; not dated.

I poor little turtle dove
A-sitting in the i)inc'
]\Iotu"ning for its own true love;
And whv not me for nune-oh-mine,
And \\\\\ not nic for mine?

 

V () 1. K I. V K I C 275

I'm nut t;ninj4 to mai"r\- in the spring ol the year,

I'll marry in the fall.

I'm going to marry a i)rctty little girl

Who wears a dollar shaw l-a-shawl.

\\ ho wears a dollar shawl.

I'm not going to marry in the tall ol the year,

I'll marry in the spring.

I'm going to marry a pretty little girl

Who wears a silver ring-a-ring,

Who wears a silver ring.

1 went up on the mountain

To get a turn of corn;

The squirrel curled his tail around

And the possum hroke his horn-a-horn.

And the possum hroke his horn.

I went up on the mountain
To give my horn a l)low ;
Away down in the valley
1 heard a chicken crow-a-crow,
1 heard a chicken crow.

Hogs in the pen

And corn to feed them on ;

And all I want is a pretty little girl

To feed 'em when I'm gone-a-gone,

To feed 'em when I'm gone.

 

250

Thk Wagoner's L.\d

Tliis is one of those folk lyrics of unliappy love that are of
uncertain content, taking: up or slou.trhing: ott plu'ases and inia.s:es
as thev pass through the minds and feelings of singers. The core
of it. 'in so far as it has one, is the lovelorn girl trying to prevent
the wagoner lad from leaving lier. It slips almost unnoticed into
another (if it really is another) often called 'Old Smoky.' .\nd
like "Old Smoky' it' belongs to tlie soutliern Appalacliians and to
the days of what Winston Churchill called "The Crossing," the
time of freighting over the mountain passes to the newer country in
the West. It is known in Virginia ( SharpK 11 127. SCSM 2-y;,
FSV 83-5), Kentuckv (JAFL xx 268-9, LT 64, SharpK 11 124-5,
BKH i\g-20, Shearin's svllabus), Tennessee (ETWVMB 37,
SharpK 11 125-6. 127. and' a trace of it in JAFL xlii 292-3).
Nordi Carolina (JAFL xxviii 159. xi.v 108-10, SharpK 11 123-4.
126-7, SCSM 277-9. FSSH 279-80. SSS.\ 2-3. 18-9), Georgia
(FSSH 280-1. IA1'"L XI. V iio-TT). and Indiana (SMAJ iii 212-13.

 

276 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

215-16). There is a trace of it reported from Mississippi (JAFL
XXIX 148), another from Arkansas (OFS iv 216), another from
Iowa (jMAFLS XXIX 49), and another from Nova Scotia (BSSNS
138). ]Mrs. Steely found it in the Ehenezer community in Wake
county. I have found no trace of it in the New En.^^land states;
its appearance in Indiana tradition is intelli.c^ihle enough if we
rememher that that state was in great part settled from the South.
There are three texts of it and three fragments that may be
assigned to it in the Brown Collection, besides an Ediphone record.

A
'W'agoner's Lad.' Contributed Iw I. G. Greer of Boone, Watauga
county, about 1916.

1 I'm but a poor ori)han, my fortune's been bad;
I've a long time been courted by a wagoner's lad.
He courted me truly by night and by day ;

But now he is loaded and going away.

2 'Your horses are hungry, go give them some bay ;
Come sit down beside me, darling, as long as you stay."
'My horses aren't htmgry, nor they won't eat your hay.

So fare you well, darling, I've no time to stay.'

3 He mounted his horses and away he did ride
And left the girl weeping on New River side.
But when he returned, she crowned him with joy
And kissed the sweet lips of the wagoner boy.

4 'I can love yott right lightly, or I can love long;

I can love an old sweetheart till a new one comes on,
I can hug him and kiss him and keep him with ease,
Then turn my back on him and court who I please.

5 'So hard is the fortune of poor woman-kind!
They're always controlled and they're always confined.
Controlled by their parents until they're made wives.
Then slaves for their husbands the rest of their lives.

6 'Young ladies, young ladies, take warning from me,
Never cast your affection on a young man so free.
He will hug you and kiss you and tell you more lies
Than the leaves on the green trees or stars in the skies.'

B

'Tile Wagoner Lad." Reported by Mrs. Sutton from tbe singing of
Myra Barnc-tt (.Miller), who lived as a nurse with the Minish family
in Mrs. Sutton's cbildhood and from wboni Mrs. Sutton (then Maude
Minish) first beard many of tlie ballads wbicb slie was afterwards to
report for tbe Brown Collection. \h\t she heard it also from many others.
"1 have variants <if 'The Wagoner's Lad.'" she writes, "from Cald-
well, Mitclirll, ^';uK•ev. and Ibnu-ouibe countit-s. I collected it once on

 

FOLK L V K 1 C 2/7

Toe River." Of Myra Barnett she writes: "Myra, like every ballad
singer I've seen, was convinced of the perfidy of men. Trnth and de-
votion were not to be found in the masculine gender, according to
Myra's attitude and songs." But this is of course merely the traditional
tone of the folk lyric. Mrs. Sutton's report of Myra's version exists
in the manuscripts of the Collection in two forms, which differ slightly
but significantly: botli arc therefore given. The last two lines of stanza
I are no doubt a refrain, to be repeated after each stanza.

1 'Go away from me, Willie, and leave me alone ;
For I am a poor girl and a long way from home.
Oh yes, I'm a poor girl, my fortune'.s been bad;
I've a long time been courted by a wagoner lad.

He courted me duly, by night and by day.
And now he is loaded and a-going away.

2 'Your horses are hungry, go feed them some hay.
Come sit you down by rne as long as you stay.'
'yiy horses ain't hungry; they won't eat your hay,
So fare you well, darling. I'm a-going away.'

3 'Your horse is to saddle, your wagon's to grease.
Come sit you down by me as long as you please.'
'My horse it is saddled, my whip's in my hand ;
So fare you well, darling, I've no time to stand.

4 'Your parents don't like me because I am poor;
They say I'm not worthy to enter your door.
Some day they will rue it, and rue it in vain.
For love is a killing and tormenting pain.

5 'I can love little, or I can love long.

I can love my old sweetheart till a new comes along.
I can hug her and kiss her and prove to her kind ;
I can turn my back on her and also my mind.'

(1))

1 'Go away from me. Willy, and let me alone.
For I am a poor girl and a long way from home.
Oh yes, I'm a poor girl, my fortune's l)een bad.

I have a long time been courted by a wagoner lad.
He courted me duly, by night and by day,
And now he's a-loadin' and a-goin" away !

2 'Your horses is hungry, go feed them some hay.
Come set you down by me as long as you sta}.'
'My horses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay.
So fare you well, darlin'. I'm goin' away.

I courted you duly, by night and by day.
But now I am loaded and a-goin' away.'

 

278 N O R T H C A K L I N A FOLKLORE

3 His wagon is loaded and stands in the road.

He leaves poor Nelly a-totin' a load.

So come, all young ladies, if you wouldn't be sad,

Avoid the attentions of a wagoner's lad.

They'll court you all duly by night and by day.
And then the\- will leave you and go far away.

c

'My Horses Ain't Hungry.' Secured in 1939 from the manuscripts of
G. S. Robinson of Asheville. Not strictly a North Carolina version,
since it was taken down in Pulaski county, Kentucky ; but it represents
a southern Appalachian tradition.

1 'Oh. my horses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay.
I'll hitch up my horses and drive right away.

Your mama and papa they think I'm too poor.

So I'll hitch up my horses and drive from your door.'

2 'Oh, Johnnie, sweet Johnnie, ye know that I care;
I'd drive right away with ye now if I'd dare.

My mama and pai)a thev want me to home.

But I love ye, sweet Johnnie, and with ye I'll roam.'

3 'Your mama and papa and family. I'm told.
Say all I be wantin' is part of your gold.
But Polly, sweet Polly, oh. how can ye stay
With my horses hitched uj^ and I'm a-going away?'

4 'Oh, I hate to leave mama, she treats me so kind.
But I do love ye so. darling Johnnie of mine !

Ye must tell me, my darling, if with ye I roam.
That deep in your heart I'll always be home.

5 So goodbye, dear mama, we're leavin' today.
We'll drive along southward, and feed on the way :
'Cause young love is hap])ier far than old.

And that's all our story we care to be told.'

n

'Pretty Mary.' From Mamie Mansfield of tiie I'^owler Scliool District,
in Durham county, in 1922. Like so many folk love lyrics it is a com-
posite of divers simples, but may he reckoned with 'The Wagoner's Lad'
in- virtue nf its last stanza. See 'Trouliled Mind,' \). 344 below.

1 'Ih-etty Alary, pretty Mary, do yoti think it's luikind
l'"or me to come to see you and tell you niv mind?
My mind is for to marry and never UKjre part,
For the first time 1 saw you you broken my heart.
I'll go 'way to the mountain, to the mountain so high;
I'll send \-ou a letter as the wild geese go bv.'

 

r () I. K I, V R 1 c 279

Chorus:

1 am trouljk'd. 1 am troubled. J am troubled in mind.
And if trouble don't kill me I'll live a long time.

"Take out your horses and ivv<\ them some haw

And sit down beside me as long as vou mav.'

'My horses are not hungry, and they won't eat your hay.

I'll drive on a little further and feed on the wav."

 

'Poor Johnny.' Tliis and the following fragment clearly belong with the
first stanza of D, though they lack any direct connection with 'The
Wagoner's Lad.' The present fragment was reported by Mrs. Sutton,
without date, as a "dance song, with banjo," from the performance of
Silas Ruchanan of Horse Creek, Ashe ct)unty. She conmients : "This
tune is marvelously infectious. We 'ran a reel' to it tonight, at Silas
Buchanan's. One call was particularly funny. "Ca-se the bird,' called
out the leader. Three of us caught hands, leaving the fourth member
in the center. 'Red bird out and buzzard in' was the next command,
and the lady came out of the ring while her partner took her place.
Silas doesn't want the school authorities to know that he sanctions
dancing. 'I let the young folks play a little when the boys come down
the creek,' he said, 'but they don't do no round dancin'.' "

Poor Johnny, poor johnny, would you think it unkind
Fur me to sit down beside you and tell you m\- mind?
My mind is to marry and never to part :
Fur the first time I saw you, you wounded m\- heart.

F

'Lovely Emma.' Contributed by Elsie Doxey of Currituck county, but
with the notation that it came from western North Carolina. Its rela-
tion to 1) and E is obvious. It might perhaps as well be thought of as
part of 'Pretty Polly' (i.e., 'The Gosport Tragedy'), for a Tennessee
text of that ballad (ETWV.MB 74) begins with the same stanza except
that the name there is Polly instead of Emma.

Lovely Fmma. sweet Fmma, would you think it unkind

If I were to sit by yf)U and tell you my mind?

My mind is to marry and never to part ;

The first time I saw you you wounded mv heart.

Clwnts:

Oh, her breath smells as sweet as the dew on the vine.
God bless vou, lo\elv ICmma, I wish vou were mine.

 

251

Soi^RWOOI) MoU.XT.MN

A great favorite in the Southern mountains, 'i'exts have been
reported from Virj,nnia (AMS 89, FSSH 400. FSV 246). Ken-
tucky (Shcarin 38, LT ot-.^, RKH 170-1. SharpK 11 ,^0. .ASh 125,

 

28o NORTH CAROLINA F O L K L R p:

320-1. DD 1 14-15). Tennessee (FSSH 401, ETWVMB n). North
Carolina (JAFL xxii 249, xliv 85, FSSH 399), Georgia (SharpK
II 305), and Missouri (OFS iii 155-/). Commonly it is a dance
or play-party song (Thomas Smith calls his version a jig), but
it may be just a song. Texts vary considerably, and so does the
refrain; Miss Bascom (version C) remarks that the variation in
the refrain lines is due to the individual singer's attempt to imitate
his banjo. Mrs. Richardson (AMS 117) says that Sourwood
Mountain is a spur of Sandy Ridge in Russell county. Virginia,
but there are other mountains of the same name, taken from the
sourwood brush (the sourwood is the sorrel tree, Oxydcndroti
(trborciiiii, common in the Alleghanies ).

A

'Sourwood Mountain." From I. G. Greer, Boone. Watauga county, in
1922. With the tune. Greer's text exists in the Collection in two
forms, the first of which, a manuscript in Dr. Brown's hand, runs as
follows :

1 I've got a girl in the Sourwood nu)untains ;
She's gone cripple an' blin'.

She's broke the heart of many a pore feller
But she ain't broken this'n o" mine.

2 I've got a girl in the bend o' the river,
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

A hop and a jump and I'll be with her,
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

3 I've got a love in tiie Buffalo holler.
Tink-tank-toodle all the da}-.

She wouldn't come an' it's I won't call her.
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

4 Now my love w-ent a-floatin' down the river,
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

If I had my boat I'd 'a' went with her,
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

5 An old grey goose went a-swimmin' down the river,
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

If I was a gander I'd a went with her.
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

6 l')ig dog bark, little dog bile you.
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

P>ig girl court and little girl slight you,
Tink-tank-tondU- all the dav.

7 1 got a girl in the head of the holler.
Tink-tank-toodle all the dav.

 

FOLK LYRIC 281

SIh' Wdii'l come and 1 won't foller,
'l"ink-tank-t(i(i(llr all llic day.

8 She sits up with old Si 1 lall.
Tink-tank-toodlc all the da\-.
Me and Jeff can't go there at all.
'J'ink-tank-toodle all the day.

9 Some of these days he fore verv lon^
'I'ink-tank-toodle all the day.

I'll i^et that girl and a-honie I'll run
Tink-tank-toodle all the day.

Greer'.s other text differs sliglitly in the refrain hne. which liere rnns :
'He-tink-toodle all the day," by having a stanza marked "chorus" :

I've got a gal in the Sourwood Motintain
He-tink-toodle all the day
I've got a gal in the Sourwood Mountain
He-tink-toodle all the day,

and hy tlie introduction of a stanza (the tliird) not in tlie other version:

Get your dog and your old gun,
He-tink-toodle all the day
Let's go a-huntin' and have a little fun.
He-tink-toodle all the day,

and by having as its seventh stanza the first stanza of Smith's version ( B.
l)elo\v). (Otherwise its stanzas correspond ( witli the difference in the
refrain line noted above and with "Buffalo Holler" in place of "the
head of tlie holler") with those of the first version, but in a different
order; using the order of the first version, this version consists of
stanzas i, 7 (its third stanza is given above), 5, 4, 9, 7 (stanza 8 of the
first version does not appear ) .

B

'Sourwood Mountain.' Contributed, probalily in 191 5, by Thomas Smitli
of ZionviJie, Watauga county, with the notation that "the above jig has
been sung and played as far back as tiie oldest person of this place can
rememl)er." W'itii tiie tune, as sung by Mrs. Joseph Miller.

1 Chickens are crowing in the Sourwood Mountains.
Chickens are crowing for day.

Chickens are crowing in the Sourwood Mountains,
( )h fod da link a day.

2 I have a love in the Sourwood Mountain,
Oh fod da link a day.

I have a love in the Sourwood Mountain,
r)h fod da link a day.

 

282 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

3 She won't come and 1 won't call her.
Oh fod da link a day.

She won't come and 1 won't call her,
Oh fod da link a day.

4 Wake up. Sam. and let's go a-hunting.
Oh fod da link a day.

Wake up, Sam. and let's go a-hunting,
Oh fod da link a day.

5 Way o\er in the Ikickeye hollow.
Oh fod da link a day.

Way over in the P)Uckeye hollow,
Oh fod da link a day.

 

'Sourvvood Mountain.' The Collection has two texts contributed by
Louise Rand Bascom. In her 1909 paper on North Carolina balbds
(J.'\FL x.xii 238-50) she speaks of 'Sourwood Mountain' as a ballad
she would like to get but of which she knows only one stanza ( which
is the first stanza of A). Later, evidently, she secured the two texts
in our collection. The first of these corresponds to the first five stanzas
of -A except for a somewhat different refrain line: 'Taddle-tink-tank-
toodle all the day.' The other is also of five stanzas, the first three of
which correspond to stanzas i, 5, 7 of .\ (with a slightly different
refrain line) and tlie other two are

4 A i)retty little girl went a-floating down the river.
Fol-tom-tollie-tum all the day,

Ef I could a swum I'd a went with her,
Fol-tom-tollie-tum all the day.

5 The chickens is a-crowin' in the sourwood holler,
Fol-tom-tollie-tum all the day,

Ef ye don't helieve it, Fll het yon ri dollar,
Fol-tom-tollie-tum all the da v.

 

'Sourwood Mountain.' Contributed by J. E. Massey of Klon College,
Caswell county, apparently in 191 7.

1 Chicken crowing on .Sourwood Mounlaiii,
Hey ho diddle dum day

(jet your dogs and we'll go a-luuuing,
lley ho diddle dum di-ay.

2 My true lo\e she lives in Letcher,
Hey ho diddle dum dav

She won't come and 1 won't fetch her.
Hev ho diddle dum di-ay.

 

r () I. K I, ^■ R 1 c 283

3 Big doi^- bark and little one bite you,
Hey ho diddle duni day

llii^ girl'll court and little one slight you,
1 ley ho diddle duni di-ay.

4 My true love lives up the river.
Hev ho diddle duni day

A few more jum])s and I'll be with her,
Hey ho diddle duni di-ay.

E

'Sour wood Mountain.' Reported hy Mrs. Sutton, apparently in 191 6 or
1917. She says: "Its rhythm is irresistible. The words cannot be
applied to the tune by anybody but a mountaineer. I heard it first at
a dance given for the drafted men who were leaving Xewland [Avery
county] for Camp Jackson." She gives only three stanzas.

1 Chicken crowin' on Sourwood Mountain,
Yoy ho diddle dum day

Git your dogs and we'll go a-huntin',
Yuly ho diddle dum day.

2 .Mv little gal's a blue-eyed daisy,
Yoy ho diddle dum day

If I don't git her I'll go crazy,
Yoy ho diddle dum day.

3 Big dog bark and little dog bite ye,
Yov ho diddle dum day

Big girl coiu-t and little girl slight ye,
Yoy ho diddle dum day.

F

'Sourwood Mountain.' Contrilnited by Otis Kuykendall of Aslievillc
in 1939. The refrain line here is entirely different.

1 I've got a girl in Sourwood Mountain,
She's both crippled and blind.

She's broke the heart of many a poor boy.
But she can't break the heart of mine.

Chorus:

Chickens a-crowing in the Sourwood Mountain,
Tell my honey she had better get away.
Chickens a-crowing in the Sourwood Mountain.
Tell my honey it's not long till day.

2 Jav bird a-sitting on a hickory limb.
Tell my honey she had better get away,
Mv big rifle will sure get him.

Tell mv honey she had better get away.

 

284 N <» K T II CAROLINA FOLKLORE

3 The big clog bark and the little dog bite you.
Tell my honey she had better get away.
Big girls court you and the little girls slight you,
Tell my honey she had better get away.

G

'Sourwood Mountain.' Contributed by Miss Kate S. Russell of Rox-
boro, Person county, in 1923 or thereabouts. Here again the refrain
line is slightly different from those given before. It runs the same
throughout the song.

1 Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain,
Hay ho didyum day.

Get my dog. and I'll go hunting.
Hay ho didyum day.

2 My true love lives up the hollow,
She won't come and I won't follow.

3 My true love is a blue (or black or brown) -eyed daisy;
If she don't come, I'll go crazy.

4 Old man. old man, I want your daughter
To bake my bread, and carry me water.

H

'Chickens A-Cro\ving in the Sourwood Mountains.'^ Reported by Ger-
trude Allen (later Mrs. Vaught) from Oakboro, Stanly county. The
manuscript is in six-line stanzas, pretty certainly wrongly, but the editor
will not undertake to correct the error.

1 Chickens a-crowing in the Sourwood mr)untains.^
Hay oh doodle may day

So many pretty girls I can't count them.
Hay oh doodle may day
They won't come and I won't call them.
Hay oh doodle may day.

2 Old man. old man. I want your daughter,
Hay oh doodle may day

Bake my bread and carry my water.
Hay oh doodle may day
Get your gun and we'll go hunting,
Hay oh doodle may da\-.

I

'Sourwood Mountain.' .X fragment reported by Dr. Brown as follows :
"Tiie lines of Sourwood Mountains arc frc(|uently affected 1)\' local cur-
rent events. For instance, I heard a man witli newly acciuired religion
singing—

^ "Mountains" is written "mounts" in Ijoth i)laccs, doubtless merely a
slip of the pencil.

 

F I. K 1. N K 1 C 285

The chickc'ncy crow 011 I he Sourwdod .Mountains

You better be gittin' away.

Or the (le\il is sure a-goin' to git you

Long 'tore the Judgement Day."

Not perhaps assignable witli certainty to 'Sourwood ^b)untain'
yet clearly akin to versions G and H above are the following
fragments.

J
'Old .Man, Old Man.' Reixirtcd in July \')22. by Miss Jennie IV-ivin
of Durham.

'Old man, old man, what'll you take for your daughter?'

'Fifteen cents, a dollar an' a cjuarter.

Take her an' go,

And I don't want to catch her in town no more.'

K

'Song.' From Miss Mamie E. Cheek of Durham. No date given.

'( )ld man, old man, I want your daughter.'

'Well, you can have her for a dollar and a (|uarter.'

252
Pretty Saro

A favorite song in the South, and carried thence to the Midwest.
It is reported as traditional song from Virginia (SbarpK 11 12,
SCSM 327-8, FSV 89-90), Kentucky (Shearin 22), North Carolina
(SharpK 11 10, 11, SCSM 327, JAFL xlv i 12-13, FSSH 283),
Georgia (SharpK 11 11-12), Mississippi (FSM 164-5), the Ozarks
(OFS IV 222-4), Indiana (BSI 362), and Iowa (MAFLS .x.xix
106-7). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake
county. The author — if it had one — has not been discovered.

A

'Pretty Saro.' From Miss Pearle Webb, Pineda, Avery county. Not
dated.

I When first to this country a stranger I came,

I placed my affections on a handsome vonng dame.

I looked all around me, and I was alone

And a i)oor stranger and a long way from home.

Chorus:

Oh, Saro, i)retty Saro, I love you, I know,
I love you, pretty Saro, wherever 1 go ;
No tongue can express it, no poet can tell
How trtdy T love you, oh. I love you so well.

 

286 X K T H C A R L I N A FOLK I, O R E

2 Down in some lonely valley, in some lonely place.
Where the small birds are singing and the notes to

increase
The thoughts of pretty Saro so neat and complete.
I want no h^etter pastime than to be with my sweet.

3 (^h, 1 wish 1 was a poet and could write some tine hand;
I would write my love a letter that she might understand
And send it by the waters where the island overflows.
And think of pretty Saro wherever I go.

4 Mv love she don't love me. as I understand,
She wants some freeholder, and 1 have no land.
Ikit 1 can maintain her with the silver and gold

And all the pretty tine things that mv love's house can
hold.

 

3

 

Oh. Saro. pretty Saro. 1 must let you know
How truly I love you — 1 never can. though ;
No tongue can express it. no poet can tell
How truly I love you. I love you so well.

6 It's not the long journey I'm dreading to go

Nor leaving of this country for the debts that I owe;
There is but one thing that troubles my mind.
That's a-leaving jiretty Saro. my true love, behind.

7 Farewell, my dear father, likewise my mother too,
I'm a-going to ramble this country all through.
And when I get tired. I'll sit down and weep
And think of pretty Saro wherever she be.

8 ( )h. 1 wish I was a little dcjve. had wings and could fly.
Straight to my love's bosom this night I'd draw nigh
And in her little small arms all night I would lay

And think of pretty Saro till the dawning of day.

9 I love you, pretty Saro, I lo\e you, I know,
I love you, pretty Saro, wherever I go.

On the banks of the ocean and the mountain's sad brow
I loved you then dearly, and I love you still now.

 

'Pretty Saro.' KeixDrted by Thomas Sniitli of Zionvillc as sung, in
January 1915, by Mrs. Polly kayfield of Silvt-rstoiK', Watauga county,
who liad heard it sung over fifty years earlier. W'itli tiie tune.

1 I'retty Saro, i)relty .Saro, 1 love you, I know.
1 love vou so dearly 1 never can show.

 

K () L K I. N' K 1 C 287

J On the banks of dd Cow if. on the hanks nf said hrow,^
1 k)ved yon dearly, and 1 l(i\e Non still now.

j^ Down in some lonely valley, in some lonely place,
1 hear small hirds singing their notes to increase.

4 It makes me think of ]M-etty .Saro, her ways were so

complete.

5 It's iK)t this long jonrney that troubles my mind.
Nor the country I'm leaving hehind.

6 My true love won't have me, so I understand ;
She wants a freeholder, and 1 have no land.

7 Whenever I get tired 1 set down and weep
And think of pretty Saro wherever 1 he.

253 Old Smoky

In content this Is a combination of 'The Inconstant Lover' and 'The Wagoner's Lad,' with an echo of "Courting Too Slow" in the opening stanza of A and the eleventh stanza of C. But the persistence of the name of the mountain seems to justify treating it
as a distinct song. Like 'Pretty Saro' it belongs to the Southern
mountains but has moved, in one case at least, out to the Midwest.
It is reported as traditional song from Virginia (SCSM 276-7).
Kentuckv (BKH 1 19-20), North Carolina (JAFL xxviii 159. xlv
105-7, SCSM 278-9, SSSA 2-3. FSSH 273-4. BMFSB 28-9).
Georgia (JAFL xlv 105-7, FSSH 275), and Illinois (TSSI 236-8).

A. 'Old Smokey.' Obtained from Frank Proftitt of Sugar Grove, Watauga county, in August 1937.

1 On the top of Old Smokey,
All covered in snow,

I lost my true lover
By courting too slow.

2 Courting was pleasure.
But parting was grief.
A false-hearted lover
Is worse than a thief.

3 A thief he will rob you
And take what you save.
But a false-hearted lover
IMace you in the grave.

^ The final stanza of text A sliows, perliaps, lunv this should read.

N.C.I'., \'.>1. II L (Jl)

4 The grave will decay you
And turn you to dtist.
Not a boy in ten thousand
That a poor girl can trust.

5 They will tell you they love you
To give your heart ease.
And when your back's turned upon them
They'll court whom they please.

6 It's raining, it's hailing.
The moon gives no light.
Your horses can't travel
This dark stormy night.

7 So put up your horses
And feed them some hay.
Come and sit here beside me
As long as you stay.

8 'My horses ain't hungry.
They won't eat your hay.
I'll drive on, my true love,
And feed on my way.'

9 As sure as the dew drops
Fall on the green corn
My lover was with me ;
But now he is gone.

lo So back to Old Smokey,
Old Smokey so high,
Where the wild birds and turtle doves
Can hear my sad cry.

B. 'On Top of Old Smokie." Sent to Miss Constance Patten, Duke University, by Lillie Rhinehart in 1936. The first six stanzas are the same as in A except for negligible verbal variations. In the remaining six
stanzas the order is different and two new stanzas are introduced :

7 I am back to old Smokie,
Old Smokie so high.
Where the wild birds and turtle doves
Can hear my sad cry.

S .\s sure as the dew drops
Falls on the green corn
Last night he was with me;
But tonight he is gone.

9 'C\)nu\ put up your horses
And feed them some hay
And sit down beside me
As long- as you stay.'

10 'My horses is not hungry
And they won't eat ycjur hay.
So farewell, my true love,

I'll feed on my way.

11 When I get to Old Smokie
I'll write you my mind.

My mind is to marry
And leave you behind.

12 'Your parents are against me
And mine are the same ;
So farewell, my true love,
I'll be on my way.'

C. 'Old Smoky.' Copied from a manuscript in the possession of Obladiah
Johnson which bore this note : "Words by Phebe P)enfield. Crossnore ; sung by Anne Johnson to the tune of 'Little Mohee.' " But Johnson also sang it himself, July 14, 1940. The text is the same as A so far as A goes, with negligible verbal variations ; then the following lines are added :

1 1 Way down on old Smoky, all covered with snow,
I lost my blue-eyed boy by courting too slow.

12 I wrote him a letter of roses and lines;
He sent it back to me, all twisted and twine.

13 He says keep your love letters, and I'll keep mine.
You write to your true love and I'll write to mine.

14 I'll go to old (Georgia, I'll write you my mind;
Mv mind is to marry you and leave you behind.

D. 'Old Smoky.' Obtained from Zilpah Frisbie of McDowell county in
1923. A somewhat reduced form corresponding to stanzas 1-4 and 7-8
of A and ending thus :

Your parents are against me, mine are the same ;
So down on your book, love, please mark off my name.
On top of old Smoky on a mountain so high.
Where the wild birds and turtle doves may hear my sad cry.

E. 'Old Smoky." From Mrs. Sutton, without notation of where or from
whom she got it. The same, with slight verbal variations, as stanzas 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 of A.

F. 'Old Smoky.' From the manuscript book of songs of Miss Edith Walker of Boone, Watauga county. The text is the same as E.
G. 'On Top of the Smokies All Covered with Snow.' From the John Burch
Blaylock Collection, made in Caswell and adjoining counties in 1927-32.
Nine stanzas, of which the first eight correspond, with slight variations,
to stanzas 1-8 of A and the ninth is stanza 12 of B.

254 Little Sparrow

This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the
following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition —of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs.

A. 'The Little Sparrow.' Contributed by J. W. Miller of Lincoln county as "sung by a woman in 1907."

1. Come all ye fairer tender ladies,
Take warning how you love young men;
For they're like a star in the summer morning.
They are here but soon are gone again.

2 For once I had an untrue lover
Which I claimed to be my own.
He went right away and loved another,
Leaving me to weep alone.

3 If I had known before I loxed him
That his love was false to me,
I would have locked my heart with a key of golden
And pinned it there with a silver pin.

4 Oh, if I were a little sparrow
And I had wings to fly,
I'd fly right away to my true love's window,
I'd listen what he told.

5 I hit then as it is I'm no little sparrow.
Neither have 1 wings to Hy.
So I'll sit right down in ni\- griel and sorrow,
ril sit here till 1 die.

B. 'Little Sparrow.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of Myra Barnett, and therefore probably to he dated in the first decade of the present century, it is substantially like- A, yet differs in details interestingly.

1 Come all ye fair and tender ladies,
Be careful how you court young luen.
They're like bright stars in a summer morning,
Thev tirst are here and then they're gone.

2 They'll tell to yon some tender story,
Declare to you that they are true.
Then straightaway go and court some other.
And that's the love they have for you.

3 Oh. love is sweet and love is charming
And love is pleasant when it's new.
But love grows cold as love grows older,
And fades away like the mountain dew.

4 I wish that I'd a never seen him.
Or that I'd died when I was young.
To think a fair and handsome lady
Was stricken by his lying tongue!

5 I wish 1 was a little sparrow,
Had wings, and oh ! could fly so high.
I'd fly away to my false lover
And when he'd ask, I would deny.

6 Alas, I am no little sparrow,
No wings, and cannot fly so high.
I'll sit me down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my trouble by.

C. 'Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies.' Another text contributed by Mrs. Sutton, obtained probably several years later than B. It seems to be incomplete, but is interesting by reason of its variations from B. especially its last two lines, which hark back to the old English love song 'Seeds of Love.'

1 Come all you fair and tender ladies.
Be careful how you court young men.
They are like bright stars of a summer's morning;
Thev first are here and then they're gone.

2 They'll tell to you some lovin' story,
Declare to you that they are true,
And then they'll go and court another
And that's the love they have for you.

3 I wish I was a little sparrow,
Had wings and could fly oh, so high.
I'd fly into my true love's dwellin'
And as he called I'd he close by.

4 But as it is I am no sparrow.
Neither have wings can fly so high,
I'll sit me down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my trouhle hy.

5 If I had a known before I courted
That love would a been so hard to gain
I'd a put my heart in golden boxes
And a locked it with a silver chain.

6 Of all the herbs that grow in the garden
Be sure to get the rue and thyme. . . .

D. 'Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies.' As sung by Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery county, in July 1940. With the tune. There are two copies of his text, the longer of which, six stanzas, ends somewhat truculently:

I hope there is a day a-coming
When my lover I shall see.
I hope there is a place of torment
To punish my love for denying me.

E. 'Come All Ye Extanded Fair Ladies.' From Macie Morgan, Stanly county. A very much confused text, metrically and otherwise, but it does not contain any elements not found in A or B.

F. 'A Wish.' From W. Amos Abrams of Boone; not dated, but probably some time in the 1930s. One of the composites so often found in folk lyric. The second, third, and fifth stanzas belong to "The Butcher Boy,' the first stanza is from 'Little Sparrow.'

1 I wish I was a little sparrow ;
I'd fly away from sin and sorrow,
I'd fly away like a turtle dove,
I'd fly in the arms of my true love.

2 In yonder lands there is a home,
They say that's where my true love's gone.
But there's a girl sits on his knee.
Oh, don't you know that's grief to me ?

3 It's grief to me, I'll tell my why,
Because she has more gold than I.
But her gold will melt, her silver fly;
She'll see the day she's poor as I.

4 Oh. 1 wish. I wish, but I wish in vain,
That he'd come hack to me again.
But now he['s| gone, left me alone.
Poor orphan girl without a home.

5 Go dig my grave hoth wide and deep.
Place a marhle stone at my head and feet
And on my hreast place a turtle dove
To testify that I died of love.

* Texts of 'The Butcher Boy' show that this line should run 'It's grief to me. I'll tell you why.'

255 Kitty Kline

Of this song Louise Rand Bascom remarks that it is "the ballad which is most universally known" in western North Carolina; that it "might be called the national song of the highlanders." She also
notes, what is evident in our texts, that it has "as many ver-
sions as there are singers" (JAFL xxii 240). It is in fact an
outstanding example of that type of folk lyric which picks up
motives, recombines them, drops them, takes up others, until it is
hardly possible to say whether a given text is to be reckoned a
form of a particular song or not. Thus the first of the two texts
given by Miss Bascom (JAFL xxii 240-1) does not contain the
name 'Kitty Kline' at all. Two themes are fairly constant: the
"take me home" theme (sometimes combined with elements from
'The Lass of Roch Royal') and the "free little bird" theme. Miss
Bascom thought that the song belonged peculiarly to the Tennessee-
North Carolina mountain region. Besides her texts (reproduced
here for the sake of completeness) it has been reported from east
Tennessee by Perrow (JAFL xxvi 134) and by Isabel Gordon
Carter (JAFL xlvi 49). and Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer
communitv in Wake countv. But Randolph reports clear traces of
it from the Ozarks (OFS iv 156-8. 188).

A. 'Kitty Kline' Louise Rand Bascom in JAFL xxii (1909) 240-1.

I Take me home, take me home, take me home,
Take me home, take me home, take me home.
When the moon shines bright, and the stars give light.
Take me home, take me home, take me home.

2 'Oh. who will shoe your little feet.
Oh, who will glove your little hand.
Oh, who will kiss your sweet rosy cheek
W lien I'm gone to that far-distant land?'

3 'Oh, Pop])er'll shoe my little feet.
And Mommer'll glove my little hand.
And you shall kiss my sweet, rosy cheek,
When you come from that far-distant land.

4 'Oh. I can't stay hyar hy myself.
Oh, I can't stay hyar by myself.

I'll weep like a wilier, an' I'll mourn like a dove.
Oh, I can't stay hyar by myself.

5 'If I was a little fish

1 would swim to the bottom of the sea,
And thar I'd sing my sad little song.
Oh. I can't stay hyar by myself.
'Oh. I can't stay hyar by myself, etc.

6 "If I was a sparrer bird,

I would fly to the top of a tree.
And thar I'd sing my sad little song,
Oh, I can't stay hyar by myself.
"Oh. 1 can't stay hyar by myself, etc.

7 'Yonder sets a turtle-dove.
A-hoppin' from vine to vine.

He's a-mournin' fur his own true love,
An' why not me fur mine ?

S 'I'm a-goin' ter the top of that nigh pine,
I'm a-going' ter the top of that nigh pine,
An' ef I fall 'thout breakin' my neck.
You'll know who I love the best.'

B

'Kitty KliiK-.' Miss I'ascom's second text. JAFL xxu 241.

I Take me home to my Mommer. Kitty Kline,
Take me home to my Mommer, Kitty Kline,
When the stars shine bright, and the moon gives light.
Take me home to my Mommer. Kittv Kline.

2 Take me home to my Mommer, Kittv Kline,
Take me home to my Mommer. Kitty Kline.
With my head ui)on your breast like a birdie in its nest,
Take me home to mv Mommer, Kittv Kline.

3 I'm as tree a little bird as I can be,
I'm as free a little bird as 1 can be,
I'll build my nest on sweet Kitty's breast,
W'liar tbe bad boys can't tear it down.
Take me liome to my Mommer, etc.

The ballad then proceeds as in versinn A until after the stanza about
the "sparrer" bird, when tlicse stanzas are added :

7 If 1 was a honey-bee,

I'd dip the honey from the flowers.
An' I'd fly an" sing my sad little song,
I can't stay hyar by myself.

8 So fare ye well, Kitty Kline,
So fare ye well, Kitty Kline,

You shall wear my gold-diamont ring.
When I'm in a far-distant land.

C. 'Katy Cline." From Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county in 1915, with the note that these "are all the words I have been able to obtain of this song. It has been played on the fiddle and picked on the
banjo here for probably 90 years."

1 Oh, say that you love me, Katy Cline,
Oh, say that you love me, Katy Cline,

Oh, say that you love, you sweet turtle dove,
Oh, say that you love me, Katy Cline.

2 If I was a little bird, little bird.
If I was a little bird

I'd build my nest in sweet Katy's breast
Where the bad boys wottld never bother me.

D. 'Katy Kline.' Obtained from Miss Florence Shuman, Black Mountain,
Buncombe county, in 1920.

1 Oh, say, don't you love me. Katy Kline ?
Oh, say, don't you love me. Katy Kline?

If you love me. Katy Cline. ])ut your little hand in mine.
Oh. say, don't you love me. Katy Kline?

2 Say vou call me a dog when I'm gone.
Say you call me a dog when I'm gone ;
But when I return with a ten dollar l)ill.
It's 'llonev. where you been so long?'

E

'Katy Kline.' From (iertrude Allen (later Mrs. \aught). Taylorsville.
.\lexander county.

Oh, say that you love me. Katy Khne, Katy KHne,
Oh, say that you love me, Katy Kline.
Oh, say that you love me, that you will he mine.
Oh, say that you love me, Katy Kline.

F.  'I'm as Free a Little Bird as I Can Be.' From .Miss Maude Minnish ;
not dated, but before she became Mrs. Sutton and therefore before June
1923. She does not say from whom she got it, but notes that it goes to
"a banjo tune, the lightest and tunefullest imaginable."

1 I'm as free a little hird as I can he.
I'm as free a little bird as I can he ;

I'll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree ;
I'm as free a little bird as I can be.

2 Take me home, sweet Kitty, take me home.
Take me home, sweet Kitty, take me home.
I'll build my nest in the sweet Kitty's breast
Where the bad boys cannot trouble me.

 

'I'm as Free a Little Bird as I Can Be.' Lines to accompany the tune
as set down by Miss Vivian Blackstock. Not dated.

I'm as free a little bird as I can be.

I'll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,

I'm as free a little bird as I can be.

H

'Free a Little Bird." Sung by Tom Boyd on Rabbit Ham. Buncombe
county. Not dated.

1 Take me home, birdie, take me home ;
Take me home by the light of the moon.

When the moon is shining bright and the stars are giving

light.
Take me home to my mamma, take me home.

Clionis:

I'm as free a little bird as I can be ;

I'm as free a little bird as I can be ;

I'll build my nest in the weeping willow tree

Where the bad boys will never bother me.

2 Oh. I wi.sh I was a little bird,
I'd build my nest in the air;

1 would fiv side by side of my sweet Kitty Clyde
And build in her soft silken hair.

3 I'm as free a little bird as 1 can l)c ;
I'm as free a little bird as 1 can be;
I'll build my nest in my sweet Kitty's breast
W'licre the bad boys will never bother me.

256 Ail Around The Mountain, Charming Betsy

The two texts given below differ ratlier widely, hut both are no
doubt forms of one son.n'. Louise Rand Bascom printed two stanzas
of it from this state in JAFL xxii 246. Randolph found it in
Missouri (OFS iii 185-6). Davis (FSV 243) lists what are prob-
ably (I have not seen the texts) forms of it from Virj^inia. The
Archive of American Folk Song has recordings under the title
'Charming Betsy' from New York, Virginia, and Kentucky.

A. 'Charming Betty.' Reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga
county, in 191 5, with the notation that it "was popular in this vicinity
20 or more years ago. Fiddlers played and sang it a great deal. A good
fiddler, Henry Brinkley of Brushy Fork, used to be especially complimented for his skill in playing this tune."

1 The first time I saw you, charming Betty,
You was riding on the train ;

The next time I saw you, charming Betty,
You was wearing my gold watch and chain.

2 Throw your arms around me, charming Betty,
Throw your arms around me, Cora Lee ;
Throw your arms around me, charming Betty,
And give this poor heart ease.

3 I wrote you a letter, charming Betty,
I sent it safe by hand.

And when I got the answer

You were courting some other man.

B. 'Charming Betsy.' As sung by Andy McGee of the Forks of Sandy Mush. Not dated.

1 It's all around the mountain, charming Betsy,
It's all around the mountain, Cora Lee,
And if nevermore I see you,

Dear love, remember me.

2 I hate to have to leave you, charming Betsy,
I hate to have to leave you, Cora Lee ;

If I nevermore see you.
Dear love, remember me.

3 It's all around the mountain, charming Betsy,
It's all around the mountain. Cora Lee ;
I'm going away, charming Betsy,
And you'll nevermore see me.

257. The Blue-Eyed Boy

One of tliose Protean folk-lyrics whose identity is hard to fix because they shift from text to text, taking on new elements and dropping old ones from the general reservoir of the folk fancy. What may however fairly be called forms of this song have been found in North Carolina '( BMFSB 50-1 ), Arkansas (OFS iv 262), Missouri (BSM 478-80. OFS iv 261), Indiana (BSI 339), and Nebraska (ABS 212-13). The two texts in our collection illustrate its instability.

A. 'Blue-Eyed Boy.' Communicated by W. Amos Abrams of Boone, Watauga county. Not dated. The second quatrain is in his copy marked "chorus," but one suspects that it is really the first quatrain
that serves that function.

1 Oh, bring me back my blue eyed boy.
Oh, bring my true love back to me.
Oh, bring me back my blue eyed boy
And forever happy will I be.

2 Must I go bound while he goes free?
Or must I act the childish part?
Must I love a man that don't love me
And marry the man that broke my heart?

3 There is a ring that has no end,
It is hard to find a faithful friend.
But when you find one good and true
Change not the old one for the new.

4 There is a tree I love to pass
That sheds its leaves as green as grass;
But none so green as love is true.
Change not the old love for the new.

5 Some say that courting is pleasure ;
But oh, what pleasure do I see?
For the boy I love most dearly
Has now forsaken me.

B. "Blue-Eyed Boy." This second text is also from Professor Abrams, but bears no date nor any indicating of source. Here the right quatrain is marked as chorus.

1 Some say that low is pleasure.
But no pleasure do I see;
For the only boy I ever loved
Has gone square back on me.

Chorus:

Oh, bring, me hack my darling[],
Oh, bring him hack to me.
Oh, bring me hack my darling;
He's all the world to me.

2 There's many a change in seasons,
Oh, there's many a change in sea ;

And there's many a change in a young man's heart ;
But there's no change in me.

3 Last night he came to see me;
Last night he smiled on me.
But tonight he's with another girl —
He cares no more tor me.

4 Oh, don't you rememher
That night long, long ago
When he asked me to be his bride
Of course I answered No.

5 He's gone, though, now. God bless him,
He's mine where'er he be.
He may roam this wide world o'er and o'er
But he'll find no girl like me.

 

50. The False True-Lover

Among the song- fragments that float in the consciousness of folk singers ready to be incorporated into the song of the moment a favorite is that dialogue of lovers' parting from 'The Lass of Roch
Royal '^ beginning "Oh, who will shoe your pretty foot, and who
will glove your hand?" This has already appeared as part of one
of the texts of 'Kitty Kline.' above. It is part of at least four
other- songs in North Carolina, of which the present item is one:

^ At least it is incorporated in that ballad. Perhaps even there it has
merely been taken up from the store of lyric motives in the folk memory.

" It is often hard to say whether two texts are versions of one song
or are two separate songs that use in part the same material. The five
texts here assembled under the title 'The False True-Lover' — the title,
borrowed from the Missouri collection, is not used in any of the North
Carolina texts — are held together not only by the shoe-and-glove motive
but also by the phrase "drinking of sweet wine" in four of them, "ten
thousand miles" in three, the "stormy rolls the ocean" stanza in two, the

the other three are 'I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree,' 'By By,
My Honey,' and 'Those High-Topped Shoes,' given later in this
section. For its appearance elsewhere in American folk song, in
various combinations, see BSM 480 and Kittredge's bibliographical
note in JAFL xxx 304-5.

A.  'You Have Forsaken Me.' Reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, as sung by Clyde Corum in March 1915. Corum, a young banjo-picker of Zionville, got the song from W. E. Snyder of
Boone, a neighboring town. "This song is well known in this section and is sung to two different tunes."

1 It was on a cold and windy night,
When I was drinking of sweet wine
And thinking of my old true love
Who stoled this heart of mine.

2 'Oh, fare you well, my pretty little miss.
Oh, fare yoti well for a while ;

I'm going away, hut I'm coming hack again
If I go ten thousand miles.'

3 'Ten thousand miles away,' said she, 'my love,
For I know that never can be.

For the parting of old true love
Would be the death of me.'

4 'Oh, who will shoe your feet, my love.
And who will glove your hands,

And it's who will kiss your sweet rosy cheeks
When I'm in a foreign land?'

5 'My papa will shoe my feet,
Aly mama will glove my hands.

And you may kiss my sweet rosy cheeks
W^hen you return again.

6 'Go dig up the red rosebush.
Plant otit the weeping-willow tree ;
For it's to be seen by the wide world
That you have forsaken me.'

7 'When I forsaken you. my love.
The rocks by the sea shall meet^  

turtle-dove or its equivaknt in three, and the assertion that rocks will
melt and the sea will burn and firo turn to ice before be will forsake his love which appears with variations in three of them. Two of them,
A and D, have the stanza about pulling up the rose bush and planting
the willow tree, and two others. I' and C. the simile of the instrument
"just newly put in tune."

^ Texts B and E have "melt," wbich is surely right.

And the fire shall trceze to a solid cake of ice
And the raging sea shall hum.'

8 "1 wish to the land' 1 never had heen horn
Or 'a' died when 1 was young.

I'd never saw your sweet ro.sy cheeks
Or 'a' heard your flattering tongue.

9 '( )h. don't \'ou see that i)rett\ little hird
I'dving from vine to vine

And chirping there for its old true love
Who stoled this heart of mine?

10 "Oh. who will make your l)e(l. my love,
And who will dress it neat ?

And it's who will lie all in your arms
If you no more I see?'

11 'I'll take no stranger hy my side,
I'll keep no company,

I'll never enjoy the love of no hride
If you no more I see.'

B.  'As I Walked Out Last Christmas Day." From J. P. Midgett of Wanchese, Roanoke Island. Secured probably in 1920. With the tune as sung by Mr. (or Mrs.) C. K. Tillett in 1922.

1 As I walked out last Christmas day.
A-drinking of sweet wine.

It was there I spied that pretty little girl

That stold this heart of mine.

She looks just like some instrument

That's just been put in tune;

She looks just like some, pink or a rose

That blooms in the month of June.

2 'Oh, who will shoe your feet, my love.
And who will glove your hand,

And will kiss your rtihy lips
While I'm in a foreign land?'
'jVIy mother she will shoe my feet.
My father will glove my hand ;
No man shall kiss my ruby lips
While you ['re I in a foreign land."

3 'The blackest crow that ever flew
Shall in those days turn white
If ever I prove false to you
Broad day shall turn to night ;

If ever I prove false to you

The rock shall melt in the sun,

The fire shall freeze tell ever more be/

And the raging seas shall burn.'

4 'Oh, don't you see that turtle dove
As she flies from pine to pine ?
She's mourning of the loss of her own true love
Just like I mourn for mine.
I wish to Ciod that I was dead
Or had died when I was young.
I never should have grieve [d] or shed a tear
Over no poor woman ['s] son.'

 

'Song.' Communicated by Elsie Doxey of Currituck county. Not dateil.
but probably sent in some time in the 1920s. It belongs to the same
tradition as B, but has interesting variations.

1 A-sitting one cold winter night
A-drinking of sweet wine,
A-courting of that pretty miss
That stole that heart of mine.

2 She is like some pink or rose
That blooms in the month of June,
Or like some musical instrument
That is newly put in tune.

3 'Oh, fare you well, my dearest dear.
Oh, fare yoti well for a while ;

I'll go away, but I'll come back again.
If I go ten thousand miles.'

4 'Oh, who will shoe my feet, my dear.
And who will glove my hands?

Or who will kiss my ruby lips
When you're in a foreign land ?'

5 'Your brother will shoe your feet, my dear,
Your mother will glove your hands ;

And 1 will kiss your ruby lips
When I return again.'

6 'Oh. don't you see that turtle dove
A-flying from vine to vine ?
A-mourning for the loss of its own true love
As 1 shall mourn for mine.'

^ Miswritten surely for "Lord."[wrong place]

^ So run the last four words of this line in the manuscript. I do
not know how to correct them.

 

1)

'Should I Prove False to Thee' Another text reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville in 1915. The stanza marked "chorus," which it
shares with version E, is found also in quite different contexts in this
collection and elsewhere; see 'Storms Are on tlie Ocean' and luadiiote
thereto, pp. 311-313 of the present volume.

1 I roved. I roved all winter night
A-drinking of .sweet wine,
A-courting a pretty little miss
Who broke this heart of mine.

Chorus:

Though storms may roll the ocean,
The heavens may close[] to be,
This earth would lose its motion, my love,
Should I prove false to thee.

2 'Oh, who will pull up the rosy bush
And plant the weeping willow tree ?

For it's plain to be seen by the wide world around
That you've forsaken me.'-

3 "(Jh, who will shoe your pretty little feet.
And who will glove your hands.

And who will kiss your rose-red cheeks
When I'm in a far-ofif land?'

4 'My papa will shoe my pretty little feet.
My mama will glove my hands.

And you may kiss my rose-red cheeks
\Mien vou return again.'

 

'Who Will Shoe My Pretty Little Feet?' Sung by Mrs. N. T. Byers
of Zionville, Watauga county, July 24, 1922. With the tune.

I 'I'm going to leave you now.
I'm going to stay for a while ;
But I'll return to you. my love.
If I go ten thousand miles.

Chorus:

'Oh. stormy rolls the ocean.

The heavens may cease to be.

This earth would lose its motion, my love.

Should I prove false to thee.

^ Mis written, no doubt, for "cease." the reading of E in this place.
- This stanza, which appears also in A, carries a faint echo of a song
beloved in England but seldom found in America. 'Seeds of Love.'

N C.F., Vol. HI. (22)

2 'Oh. who will shoe your pretty little feet,
And who will glove your hands.

And who will kiss your red rosy cheeks
When I'm in the foreign land?'

3 'My papa will shoe my pretty little feet.
My mama will glove my hands,

And you may kiss my red rosy cheeks
When you return again.'

4 'Should I prove false to thee, my love,
The rocks would melt by the sun

And the fire would freeze in a hard cake of ice
And the raging sea would burn.'

259. I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree

Here the shoe-and-glove stanzas from 'The Lass of Roch Royal'
are combined with the refrain of a very familiar song. There is a
quite unauthenticated legend that this song, a very popular parlor
song of the last century, was the work of a young British officer
who fell in love with the Princess Victoria before she came to the
throne. Its actual authorship seems not to be known. It is reported as traditional song in Scotland (Ord 56-7), is listed in the Shearin and Pound syllabuses, and is to be found in several books
of popular songs — without, of course, the shoe-and-glove stanzas.

A. 'I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree.' Contributed by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke county; not dated, but at some time before 1916. Note that the rhythm of lines 1 and 5 has been changed from that found in these stanzas elsewhere.

1 'Oh! who's going to shoe my pretty little foot, foot, foot,
And who's going to glove my lily-white hand,

And who's going to kiss my ruby lips
When you're in a far distant land ?'

Cliorus: Adieu, kind friends, adieu, adieu.
I stay no longer here with you.
I'll hang my harp on a willow tree
And go for the fellow that goes for me.

2 'My Pa's going to shoe my pretty little foot, fool, foot.
My Ma's going to glove my lily-white hand;

I know who'll kiss my ruby lips
When I'm in a far distant land.'

B. 'I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree.' Contributed by I. A. Greer of I'xidiK-, Watauga county. The chorus only with the music.

I'll hang my harp on a willow tree.
Adieu, kind friends, adieu, adieu.
I'll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree
And may the world go well witli thee.

260. Red River Valley

This is quite distinct from 'The Red River Shore,' for which see the headnote to 'New River Shore.' That is a hallad, tells a story;
this is simply a girl's grief at her lover's departure. It is known
in Virginia (FSV 96), Kentucky (BTFLS iii 93, ASb 130-1),
Tennessee (ETWVMB 82-3). the Ozarks (OFS iv 201-4), Michi-
gan (BSSV 482), and Iowa (MAFLS xxix 74-5). Mrs. .Steely
found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. The North
Carolina texts differ chiefly by omitting or including certain stanzas.

A. 'Sherman Valley." From the manuscript hook of songs of Miss Edith Walker, Boone, Watauga county. Secured in 1936.

1 From this valley they tell me you are going.
How I'll miss your blue eyes and bright smiles !
For you carry with you all the sunshine

That has brightened my path for a while.

Clionts:

Let's consider a while ere you leave me.
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
But remeiuber the bright Sherman X'alley
And the girl who has loved you so true.

2 When you are far from this scene of the valley
And they tell me your journey is through.
Will you think of the home you are leaving
And the girl who has loved you so true?

3 I have waited a long time, m\- darling.
For the word you never would say.
But alas, my poor heart it is breaking.
For they tell me you are going away.

4 Do vou think of the home you are leaving,
How lonely and dreary it will be ?

Do you think of the fond heart you are breaking
And the girl who has loved vou so true?

B. 'Sherman Valley.' Contributed by Miss Addie Hardin of Rutherwood, Watauga county, in July 1922. with the tune. The chorus as in A ;
stanzas 1 and 2 correspond to stanzas 1 and 3 of A ; stanzas 3 and 4
are as follows :

3 Oh. think of the home you are leaving

And the friends who have loved you so true ;
Oh. think of the heart you are breaking
And the shades you are casting over me.

4 You may go, you may go, God bless you,
You may roam over land and o'er sea,
You may roam this wide world over.
But you'll find no other friend like me.

C. 'The Red River Valley.' Obtained from Mrs. Minnie Church, Heaton,
Avery county, in 1930. Four stanzas, corresponding to stanzas 1, 4, 3,
and chorus of A but with "Red River" in place of "bright Sherman."

D. 'Little Lonely Valley.' Obtained from O. L. Coffey of Shull's Mills, Watauga county, in 1939. Chorus as in A but with "little lonely" in
place of "bright Sherman"; stanzas i, 2, 3, and 5 correspond to stanzas
I, 4, 3, and 2 of A ; stanza 4 corresponds to stanza 4 of B.

E
'Red River Valley.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection, made in
Caswell and adjoining counties in the years 1927-32. Five stanzas, the
first four of which correspond, with minor variations, to stanza i, chorus
(with "Red River" in place of "bright Sherman"), stanza 4. and stanza
3 of A. The fifth stanza is not in A :

5 When I'm dead and gone from you, my darling,
Never more on this earth to be seen.

There is just one little favor I ask you;
It's to see that my grave is kept green.

 

'Bright Sherman Valley.' Another text from the Blaylock Collection.
Four stanzas, of which the fourth repeats the second. The stanzas
correspond, with minor variations, to stanza i, chorus, stanza 3, and
chorus of A.

261 The Slighted Sweetheart

One more song of broken love — with a curious break in tone in the last line of the tliird stanza. It is known also in Kentucky (BKH75-6).

'The Slighted Sweetheart.' From the manuscript songbook of Miss
Lura Wagoner of \'o.\, Alleghany county, where it is dated April 6, The date oi its entry in the Imuk. I'lie last stanza is one likely
to be attached to any ballad ending in a death ; it is the regular ending
of 'Tlie Butcher Boy.' The whole tiling is probably conceived as a monologue, though some lines may be meant as spoken by the second
party to the (|uarrel.

1 My dear sweetheart, so fare yoti well.
You slighted me, hut I wish yott well.
.\nd it on earth we no more see,

1 wouldn't serve you like you did me.

2 We'll go to Christ to mottrn and weep,
h'or fm satisfied 1 never can sleep.

You've turned me away and hroke my heart.
Uh. how can 1 from >()tt depart?

3 My dear sweetheart, my harmless dove,
Hope we will meet in a world ahove
And there in peace we'll live forever —
My dear sweetheart, you are so clever!

4 A many an hour I've spent with you ;
1 never knew you were not true.
I've found it out ; I cried aloud

And die I must in all this crowd.

5 You are all for this to blame
That I must die in grief and pain.
But after death 1 will go home;

Then think of me you have served so wrong.

6 The pain of love, I know full well.
No heart can think, no tongue can tell ;
But I'll tell you now in a few short lines
Love is worse than sickness ten thousand times.

7 Come all sweethearts from east to west.
Come view my grave while I'm at rest ;
Come, all sweethearts from far and near.
Don't lose your lives, for they are dear.

8 My dear relations all around,

I'ni going to heaven to wear a crown,
I'm going there forever to dwell.
My pain is delight, so fare you well.

9 Go dig my grave both wide and deep.
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a little while
To show to the world that I died for love.

262

The Slighted Girl

Despite the similarity in title and situation, tliis is a quite dif-
ferent affair from 'The Slighted Sweetheart' (p. 306). It consists
mostly of floating stanzas of love lyric that reappear in other con-
nections. A song reported from Tennessee (SSSA 170) has a
chorus like the first stanza of this song with the sexes reversed:
"There are more pretty girls than one," etc. Otherwise the present
song has not been found elsewhere.

'The Slighted Girl.' From the manuscript Ijook of songs of Miss Lura
Wagoner of Vox, Alleghany county, lent to Dr. Brown in the summer
of 1936. The song was entered in the book some twenty years earlier.

1 You need not flirt nor flounce around.
There's more pretty boys than one. my love,
There's more pretty boys than one.

2 Don't you remember the very time
That you bowed to me and said

If ever you married that I might be the one, my love,
That I might be the one?

3 But now you've broken all promises,
Just marry who you please.

While my poor heart is breaking d(nvn
You're living at your ease, my love,
Yoti're living at your ease.

4 The blackest crow that ever flew
Will surely turn to white

If ever I prove false to yott,

Bright days shall turn to night, my love.

Bright days shall turn to night.

5 Bright days shall turn to night, my love.
The elements shall mourn.

If ever I prove false to you

The roaring sea shall burn, my love.

The roaring sea shall burn.

6 Oh, don't you see that little dove?
It's flying from tree to tree.

It's mourning for its own true love;
And why not mine for me, my love.
And why not mine for me?

"J You think, 1 know you tliink, 1 should.
You're blind and cannot see.

The reason why I do not niovun.
He does not mourn for u\v. my love.
He does not mourn for mc.

8 You've trami)U'(l the i^recn i;'"'-'^'^ under your feet.
It's risen and or(j\vin<;- aj^ain.

I loved you as 1 loved my life

And yet it caused me pain, m\- love.

And yet it caused me ])ain.

9 Vou slighted me once and also twice.
You slighted me three or four ;

You slighted me for that pale-faced girl
And now you can take her and go, my love,
And now you can take her and go.

10 Oh, yes. I see that little dove,
It's flying from vine to vine ;

It's mourning for its old true love.
And why not me for mine, my love.
And why not me for mine ?

1 1 The time has come, my dearest dear.
When you and 1 must part.

And no one know[s] the grief and woe
Of this poor aching heart.

12 Darling, darling, do hush up!
I hate to hear you cry.

As other friends are having to part.
And why not you and I, my love,
And why not you and I ?

263

The Pale Wildwood Flower

This is the same as 'The Pale Aniaranthus' reported as known in
Kentucky (Shearin 24-5), Virginia (FSV 86), and the Ozarks
(OFS IV 315-17) ; both Davis's and Randolph's texts and those from
North Carolina (one from Avery county, fairly close to our A. is
given by Henry in BMFSB 49) show curious corruptions of the
word amaranthiis. Undoubtedly the song circulated at some time
as a sheet music or perhaps songbook piece of parlor sentiment, but
I have not succeeded in finding it in print of that sort. That the
text has been passed on by word of mouth is evident in the vari-
ations shown in the North Carolina versions. It even has two
titles, as will be seen below. P.esides the texts here given the Col-
lection has two recordings of it: one from the singing of Mrs.
W. \V. Hughes, Jonas Ridge, in 1940, the other from Miss Beulah
Walton, Durham.

 

'Raven Black Hair.' Secured in 1915 or thereabouts from I. G. Greer
of Boone, Watauga county. With the tune. The "Armeta" of line 4
is what is left of "Amaranthus."

1 I will twine with these locks of raven black hair
The roses so red and the lilies so fair.

The myrtle so bright with its emerald hue.
And the pale Armeta with eyes of dark bine.

2 He taught me to love and he promised to love.
To cherish me always all others above.

I woke from m\- dreaming ; my idol was clay,
The passion of loving had faded away.

3 He taught me to love and he called me his flower

That blossomed to cheer him through life's lonely hour.
But another has won him. I'm sorry to tell ;
He left me no warning, no words of farewell.

4 I'll dance and I'll sing and my life shall be gay.
I'll charm every heart in each crowd I array ;

Though my heart now is breaking, he never shall know
That his name makes me tremble, my pale cheeks to glow.

5 I'll dance and I'll sing and my life shall be gay,
I'll stop this wild weeping, drive sorrow away.
I'll live yet to see him regret the dark hour

That he won and neglected this frail wikhvo<id flower.

B

'The Pale Wildwood Flower.' Secured by W. Amos Abrams from
Margaret Barlowe, one of his students at the Appalachian Teachers
Training College in Boone, Watauga county. She had it from a friend —
says it was written down by Myrtle Greer, Dante, Virginia, February 4.
1919. The "amaranthus" has passed quite out of recognition into a
"pale fairen maiden" in line 4. One suspects that it is so understood in
line 4 of A.

1 I'll twine mid the ringlets, the raving dark hair.
The rose is so red and the lily so fair.

And the myrtle so green mid the emerald hue.
This pale fairen maiden with eyes of light blue.

2 I'll laugh and I'll sing and my songs shall be gay;
I'll quit this wild weeping, drive sorrow away.
Though my heart is now breaking, he never shall know
That his nanu- makes me tremble, mv ])ak' cheeks to glow.

3 He promised to love me; he called me his flower

That bloomed for to cheer him through life's weary hour.

 

K L K L Y R 1 C 3^'

Though another far dearer I'm sorry to tell'

He has left me no \varnin_t(, no word of farewell.

4 I'll laugh and I'll sing and my life shall he gay.
I'll cease this wild weejjing, drive sorrow away.
Though I will live yet to see him regret the dark hour
That he's won and neglected this i)ale wildwood flower.

5 1 promised to love him ; he told me that he would love,
He woidd sing and he would cheer me. like others al)Ove.
But when I awoke, my idol was clay ;

The pale passionate loving had faded away.

c

'The Frail Wildwuod Flower." OI)tained from Bell Brandon of Dur-
liam. Four lines only, the last stanza of A.

I'll think of him never. I'll he wild and gay ;

I'll cease this wild weeping. I'll drive sorrow away.

I'll live yet to see him regret the dark hour

When he won and neglected this frail waldwood flower.

D
No title. From Mrs. Minnie Church. Heaton, Avery county. A pecu-
liarly corrupt and confused text, printed here as it stands in the manu-
script except for the pointing and line division. The meaning — sometimes,
at least — can be made out by referring to texts A and B.

1 Oh I whine with my mongles and waving hlack hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair

And moon shines so hright with the emblem of you.

2 I will dance and I'll sing and my lass shall be gay,
I will charm every heart in his crown I wnll play,
W hen I wake from my dreaming . . . does play.
And all portions of love had all blown away. •

3 Oh. he taught me to love him and promised to love.
And cherished me over all others above.

Now my heart is wondering no difference he can tell.
He left me no warning, no words of farewell.

4 Oh, he caused me to love him. and called me his flower
That's blooming to cheer him through life's weary hour.

' This line is unconstruable, Init the general intention is clear.

264

Storms Are on the Ocean

This is the title f^iven in the manuscript of the first of the two
texts here presented. This text is a curious compound. There seems to be some story back of it, but it is not easy to see wbat the
story is. The first stanza is from the very famihar 'My Bonny
Lies Over the Ocean' ; the second stanza serves in the other text as
chorus ; then conies the "chorus" which supphes the title ; and the
remaining two stanzas carry the hint of a story of a despondent
lover. The other text carries in its two stanzas the repeated idea
of suicide. This idea appears in Negro song (JAFL xxviii 141.
NWS 130, 137, 148) with the same rhyme of "town" and "drown,"
and Miss Scarborough reports it (SCSM 350) in a song obtained
from a schoolteacher near Asheville. A song reported from Mis-
sissippi (JAFL XXXIX 153-5) has the "storms are on the ocean"
stanza and so has one from Tennessee (JAFL xlv 82). This stanza
also appears as the chorus in our North Carolina versions of 'The
Lass of Roch Royal,' Vol. H, No. 22. p. 88. The Archive of
American Folk Song has a record of this chorus from California.

A
'Storms Are on the Ocean.' Contributed by Otis Kuykendall of Ashe-
ville in 1939.

1 Last night when I lay on my pillow,
Last night when I lay on my bed,
Last night when I lay on my pillow

I dreamed that my darling was dead.

2 Oh. blow, gentle winds, from the ocean.
Oh, blow% gentle winds, from the sea,
Oh, blow, gentle winds, from the ocean,
Blow home my darling to me.

Chorus:

The storms are on the ocean.
The seas begin to roar.
This earth will lose its motion
If I prove false to thee.

3 Sometimes I have a great notion,
Sometimes I have a great mind.
Sometimes I have a great notion
To go to the river and drown.

4 Isn't it hard to leave you, dear.
Isn't it hard to part.

Isn't it hard to leave you, dear?
It almost breaks my heart.

B

No title. Contributed by Mrs. Nilla l.aucaster of Goldsboro, Wayne
county, in 1922-23.

I Sometimes 1 live in tlu' coimtry.
Sometimes 1 live in town,

And sdUK'tinu's I am alinn>t ]KTMUi<k'<l
To i^o to sonic river and drown.

Chorus:

So blow, gentle wind, from tlir oecan.
So blow, gentle wind, from the sea.
So blow, gentle wind, from tlie ocean.
And bring back my darling to me.

2 I have no love for the country,
I have no love for the town.
And' sometimes 1 am alnK)st jjcrsnaded
To go to some river and drown.

265
There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat

This appears to be a patcliing together of nuisic-hall matter — the
opening stanza— and stanzas from 'The Blue-Eyed Boy,' p. 298.

'There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat.' From the manuscript song-
book of -Miss Edith Walker of Boone, Watagua county.

1 There comes a fellow with a derby hat.
They say he's jealous, but what of that?
If he is jealous, I am gay ;

I can get a sweetheart any day.

Chorus:

Go bring me back the one I love,
Go bring my darling back to me.
They say that he loves another girl;
If true, he's proven false to me.

2 There sits a bird on yonder tree.
They say he's blind and cannot see.
If I had only been like he
Before I'd a-kept your company!

266 Bury Me in the Garden

This has nt)t been found reported elsewhere- as folk soiii;, l)ut
Professor White notes that it is "a somewhat garbled version of a
song I learned in childhood from my mother and can still sing,
'Bury me in the cornfield, nigger.' "

^ The manuscript has "En," presumably for "An'."

- Except that an identical text appears in Miss Lucy Cobb's M.A.
thesis (MS, Duke University Library )— secured presumably in Ken-
tucky or Tennessee.

'Bury Me in the Garden, Mother." Contributed liy Miss Mary Morrow of Greensboro, Guilford county, in 1928. Tlic part that 1 have marked
"Chorus" is not so marked in the manuscript.

1 Bury me in the garden, mother, mother.
Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, mother dear.
Bury me in the garden.

Chorus: O, the moonhght. the moonhght. the moonlight shines so bright,
C), the sunliglit. the sunhglit, the sunhght shines so

bright,
O, the starlight, the starlight, the starlight shines so

bright
Way down in the garden 'neath the sycamore tree.

2 Bury me in the garden, mother, mother.

Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, mother dear,
Bury me in the garden.

267 The Weeping Willow

For the range and affiliations of this song (not to be confounded with Foster's 'Under the Willow,' which was perhaps inspired by it) see BSM 482, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 78-9) and the Ozarks (OFS iv 228-30). It is well known in North Carolina, appearing eleven times in our collection. Mrs. Steely found it also in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. The texts differ chiefly by the omission or inclusion or by a rearrangement of stanzas.

'The Weeping Willow.' Reported by Thomas Smith as set down for him by Mrs. Frank Horton of Vilas, Watauga county, in 1915.

I My heart is broken. I'm in sorrow.
Weeping for the one I love ;
For I never more shall see him
Till we meet in heaven above.

Chorus:

Then btiry me 'neath the willow,
Beneath the weeping willow tree.
And when he knows where I am sleeping.
Then, perhaps, he'll weep for me.

2 Tomorrow was our wedding day ;
But God knows where is he.
For he's gone to see another
And has left me alone to weep.

3 He told me that he did not love me;
But how could I believe them true?
Until an angel softly whispered,
'Me will he untrue to you.'

4 Put on my brow a wreath of violets
To prove that I've been true to him.
Tell him that I died to save him.
But his love I could not win.

5 Plant on my grave a snow-white lily,
One that blooms in purest love ;
For I never more shall see him
Till we meet in heaven above.

The sense and other texts, show that this is miswrittcn for 'They."

B. 'The Weeping Willow Tree.' From Miss Pearl Webb of Pineola, Avery
county, some time in 1921-22. Three stanzas and chorus, of which
stanzas i and 2 and the chorus correspond (with slight variations) to
stanzas i and 2 of the chorus of A ; stanza 3 runs :

Tomorrow was our wedding day.
I pray the Lord, where is my love?
He's gone, he's gone, I never more see him
Till we meet in Heaven above.

C. 'Weeping Willow." Contributed liy .\ustin L. Elliott of Farmer, Randolph
county.

1 My heart is sad, and I am lonely
For the only one I love.

When shall I see him? No, no, never,
Till in heaven we meet above.

Chorus:

Then bury we under the weeping willow.
Under the weeping [willow] tree.
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me.

2 Tomorrow is our wedding day.
Oh, where, oh, where is he?
He has gone to seek another;
He no longer cares for me.

3 They told me that he did not love me.
How could I believe them true?
Until an angel softly whispered,
'He will prove untrue to you.'

4 Then bury me under the weeping willow,
Under the weeping willow tree,
And tell him that 1 died to save him,
For his wife I could not be.

D.  'The Weeping-Willow Tree.' Obtained by W. L. Anderson from Maxine Tillett, pupil in the school at Nag's Head on the Banks. Stanza 1 and chorus of A, with some slight verbal variations.

E. 'The Weeping Willow Tree.' Taken down as sung near Balantyne, Transylvania county, but the singer's name not noted. Chorus and first
three stanzas as in A except that stanzas 2 and 3 have changed places ;
stanza 4 combines stanzas 4 and 5 of A :

Place on my grave a snow-white lily
For to prove my love was true ;
And when he knows I died to save him
Then perhaps he'll weep for me.

F. 'Weeping Willow Tree.' Reported by Macie Morgan of Stanly county. The first two stanzas and the chorus as in E. with a few slight verbal differences; the third stanza runs:

Go bury me beneath the willow
Just to prove my love for him ;
And tell him that I died to save him.
For his love I could not win.

G.  'Weeping Willow Tree.' Secured from Otis Kuykendall of Asheville in 1939- Substantially the same matter as in A, but rearranged and with divers verbal variations.

I They told me tliat he would deceive me.
Oh, how could I believe it was true.
Until an angel whispered softly,
'He will prove untrue to you.'

Chorus:

Go bury me beneath the wilUnv,
Beneath the weeping willow tree.
For there he'll know that I am sleeping;
Then perhaps he'll weep for me.

2 Place on my grave a snow-white lily ;
That will prove my love is true.
And tfll him that 1 died to save him.
And his love I did not own.

3 Tomorrow was my wedding day.
But God only knows where he is;
He's gone away to love another
And he has left me here to weep.

H. 'The Willow Tree.' From Miss Hattie McNeill of Ferguson, Wilkes county, sometime in 1921-22. With the music. The text is only a fragment, imperfect copy of the opening stanza.

I
'The Weeping Willow.' From Miss Florence Holton of Durluim. Only
the first stanza and three lines of the chorus. The stanza runs :

Aly heart is sad and I am in sorrow
For the only one 1 k)ve.
He's gone, he's gone to seek another;
But I hope we'll meet ahove.

J. 'Down by the Weeping Willow.' Reported by M. K. Carmichael as sung in Dillon county. South Carolina. Only the chorus and two stanzas remembered, the two stanzas being stanzas 2 and 3 of A with some verbal alterations.

K.  'Under the Weeping Willow Tree.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection. Stanza 3, chorus, and stanza 2 of A.

268
Down by the W'liEPiNG Willow Tree

N.ot Foster's 'Under the Willow' nor any of the other willow
songs listed in BSM 482-3; in fact the editor has found this par-
ticular song nowhere else. For the golden (more often silver)
spade and the golden chain as implements in a burial, see 'Old
Blue," p. 252, and the references there given.

'Down by the Weeping Willow Tree.' Reported hy S. M. Holton,
Principal'of Bain Academy, .Matthews, Mecklenburg county. Fach stanza
is made up of a line sung three times and a refrain line; as shown in
the first stanza here given.

I Dig my grave and let me lie, love ;
Dig my grave and let me lie, love ;
Dig my grave and let me lie, love,
Down hy the weeping willow tree.

 

3l8 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLOKI'

2 Make it lung and deep and wide, love ;

3 Dig my grave with a golden spade, love ;

4 Let me down with a golden chain, love ;

5 Cover me over with the sod. love;

269

The Gumtree Canoe

This song by S. S. Steele, to be found in songbooks, in Miss
Pound's syllabus of Midwestern song, and in Ford's Traditional
Music of America, and reported by Randolpli as traditional song in
Missouri (OFS iv 302), appears in our collection in two frag-
ments, one of the tirst two stanzas and the other of the final stanza.

 

'On the Tombigbee River.' Contributed in 1916 by Camden Blades, at
that time a student at Trinity College.

1 On the Tombigbee River, 'twas there I was born,
In a hilt built of logs in the tall yellow corn ;
'Twas there that I tirst met my Julia so true
And sailed her about in my gumtree canoe.

CliOKKs:

Sing row away o'er the waters so blue.
Like a feather we float in our gumtree canoe.
Sing row away o'er the waters so blue.
Like a feather we float in our gumtree canoe.

2 All day in the tield the soft cotton Ld hoe ;
And think of my Julia, and sing as Ld go ;
Ld catch her a bird with a wing of true blue
And sail her about in mv gumtree canoe.

 

'One Day We Went Rowing.' Contributed by Elsie Doxey of Currituck
county. No date given.

One day we went rowing, and rowed so far away
We could not get back ; so we thought we would stay.
We spied a tall ship with its flag of true blue.
Which took us all in with our gumtree canoe.

Chorus:

Row, row, o'er waters so blue.

We'll float like a feather in our gumtree canoe.

270 The Indian Hunter

Tolman found this renK-nibered in Ohio (JAFL xxv 375) and
Brewster in Indiana ( SFI.Q iv 175). Kittred^e appended to Tol-
nian's text a bil)hoi;rapliical note showins^ that it was printed in a
great many songlKJoks dating from 1835 to iHgi. its subject is of
course the white man's romantic Indian.

'Indian Song: Let Me Go.' Contril)uted liy tlio Misses Hdlenian (if Dur-
ham in 1922.

1 Let me go to my home that is far distant west.
To the scenes of my youth that 1 like the best.
Where the tall cedars are and the bright waters flow,
Where my parents will greet me, white man, let me go!

2 Let me go to the spot where the cataract plays,
Where oft I have sported in my boyish days ;
There is my poor mother whose heart will o'erflow
At the sight of her child; oh, there let me go!

3 Let me go to the hills and the valleys so fair
Where oft I have breathed my own mountain air.
And there through the forest with quiver and bow

I have c[h]ased the wild deer; oh, there let me go!

4 Let me go to my father, whose galliant side

1 have sported so oft in the height of my pride

And exultive to concjuer the insolent foe ;

To my father, that chieftain, oh, there let me go !^

5 And oh, let me go to my dark-eyed maid

Who taught me to love beneath the willow shade.
Whose heart is like the fawn's and pure as the snow.
And she loves her dear Indian. To her let me go !

6 And oh, let me go to my far forest home.
And never again will I wish to roam ;
And there let my body in ashes lie low ;

To that scene in the forest, white man, let me go !

271

Goodbye. Little Girl, Goodbye

Dr. Wliite notes tliat he knew tliis song as an undergraduate,
1909-13, "but the version I knew had in the chorus "uniform of

^ How this stanza should read may be seen in Brewster's Indiana text:
Let me go to my sire, by whose battle-scarred side
I have sported so oft in the morn of my pride
And exulted to conquer the insolent foe ;
To my father the chief let me go, let me go.

X.C.F,. Vol. TTI, (23)

blue' for 'Virginia uniform,' relating it probably to the Spanish-
American rather than the Civil War." 1 have not found it else-
where.

'Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye.' From the manuscript book of songs
of Miss Edith Walker of Boone, Watagua county, obtained in 1936.

1 The sound of the bugle is calling ;
Fare thee well, fare thee well.
The soldiers in line are falling ;
Fare thee well, fare thee well.

There's a rose in your hair, sweet maiden,
And the fragrance floats in the air.
But the rose on your cheek is fading.
Hark ! I hear the trumpet sounding.

Chorus:

Goodbye, little girl, goodbye,
Goodbye, little girl, don't cry.
In my Virginia tmiform
I'll come marching back to yoti ;
Goodbye, little girl, don't cry.

2 From afar comes the sound of the battle.
Bugle call, soldiers fall.

On the ground mid the roar and the rattle

Lies a brave soldier boy.

'There's a rose in your breast [, sweet maiden,']

I could hear him say, mid the battle fray,

'If you spare me to see my darling.

Will you take it back to her and say :'

272 I'm Tired of Living Alone

This scrap of folk song — which may have come originally from
some parlor song — the editor has not found recorded elsewhere.

'I'm Tired of Living Alone.' Contributed by Jennie Belvin of Durham in 1922. With the tune.

I'm tired of living alone.

I went to the river, and I saw a pretty rose,

I plucked it and called it my own.

A rose will fade, and so will a maid ;

I'm tired of living alone.

Chorus:

I'm tired of living alone,

I'm tired of living alone ;

A rose will fade and so will a maid ;

I'm tired of living alone.

273 Will You Love Me When I'm Old?

Miss Pound in her syllabus of Midwestern popular song says
this is the work of J. Ford. Shearin's syllabus reports it as known
in Kentucky; Randolph found it in Missouri (OFS iv 344-5);
Neely and Spargo (TSSl 241-2) record it for Illinois; and Henry
(SSSA 30) reports a parody of it from Tennessee, 'Will you love
nie when I'm bald?' Parody is unfailing evidence of popularity.
It appears six times in our collection :

A From I. G. Greer, Boone, Watauga county. A clipping from an un-
named newspaper, without date. With the tune as (]reer heard it sung.

B From the manuscripts of Mrs. Mary Martin Copley, Route 8, Dur-
ham, obtained by Jesse T. Carpenter.

C From J. B. Midgett, Wanchese, Roanoke Island. With the tune as
sung by Mrs. (or Mr.) C. K. Tillett, in 1922.

D From L. V. Harris, apparently from Montgomery county.

E From S. M. Holton, Durham ; known in Davidson county. With the
music as set down by Miss Hattie McNeill.

F From Jesse T. Carpenter, Durham. A single stanza only, compounded
of parts of stanzas i and 2 of A. He had heard it sung about fifty
jears before.

These texts do not differ significantly. It will be sufficient to give
the first of them.

1 I would ask of you, my darling,
A question soft and low-
That gives me many a heartache
As the moments come and go.
Your love, I know, is truthful.
Yet the truest love grows cold.
It is this that I would ask you :
Will you love me when I'm old?

Clionis:

Life's morn will soon be waning
And its evening bells be tolled,
And my heart will know no sadness
If you'll love me when I'm old.

2 Down the stream of life together
We are sailing side by side.
Hoping some bright day to anchor
Safe beyond the surging tide.
Today our skies are cloudless,

But the night may clouds unfold
And its storms may gather round us ;
Will you love me when I'm old?

3 When my hair shall shame the snowdrift
And mine eyes shall dimmer grow,
I would lean upon some loved one
In the valley as I go.
I would claim of you a promise
Worth to me a world of gold ;
It is only this, my darling.
That vou'll love me when I'm old.

 

274
Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye

This song, credited in Sears's Index to T. H. Allen, is a uni-
versal college favorite. It has been reported as folk song, so far
as I can find, only from Virginia (FSV 197), Tennessee (SSSA
169, BTFLS V 33-4, in the latter case as a play-party song), and
North Carolina (]\Irs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community),
but it is known and sung all over the country. Its catchy refrain,
chorus, and tune lend themselves readily to improvisation. .So in
one of the uses of it in our collection "ship" is turned into "train"
and "railroad men" becomes "Chapel Hill men," making it a local
college song. Our other text departs even further from the orig-
inal song, introducing two elements of what was originally Negro
song, the "new-cut road" and the terrapin and the toad. Just
why the new-cut road should appeal to singers is not apparent :
perhaps chiefly because it rhymes with toad. Both these elements
appear also in 'Clare de Kitchen," No. 413 of this collection. They
are reported also, separately or together but generally together and
not in association with 'Goodbve Mv Lover, Goodbve,' from Vir-
ginia (TNFS 163-164), Kentucky (BKH 172), Alabama (ANFS
247, 248), Texas (Owens 70-1, as a play-partv song), and Iowa
(MAFLS XXIX 87).

 

'See the Train Go round the Bend.' Reported by K. P. Lewis as set
down in 1910 from the singing of Dr. Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill.

See the train go 'roun' the bend.
Goodbye, my lover, goodby.
Loaded down with Chapel Hill men.
Goodby, my lover, goodby.

By-o my baby baby by

By-o my baby baby by

By-o my baby baby by

Goodby, my lover, goodby.

B

'Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye.' Contril)uted in 1914 ijy Miss Amy
Henderson of Worry, Hiirkf county. The intercalated refrain and chorus
are repeated in eacli stanza.

1 As 1 went down the new-cut road,
Goodbye, my lover, goodbye,

I met a terrai)in and a toad,
Goodbye, my lover, goodbye.
Bye, baby, bye-o,
Bye, baby, bye-o,
Bye, baby, bye-o,
Goodbye, my lover, goodbye.

2 Every time tbe toad would sing
The terrapin cut the pigeon-wing.

3 See the train come round the curve
Loaded down with pretty young girls.

4 See the train go round the bend
Loaded down with railroad men.

275 Somebody

This was perhaps originally a parlor song. It has been reported
as traditional song from Virginia (ASb 464-5. I'^SV loi), Ken-
tucky (BKH loi), North Carolina (BMFSB 46-7, but without
the chorus), the Ozarks (OFS in 94-5), and Nebraska (ASb
464-5) ; what is perhaps a form of it or a derivative from it by
Perrow from Tennessee (JAFL xxvi 185) and by Talley as Negro
song (Negro Folk Rhymes 51). Mrs. Steely found it in the Eben-
ezer community in Wake county. It may have been suggested by
a song printed by Herd in his Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs
(11 41-2 of the 1869 reprint) or another given by Christie {Tradi-
tional Ballad Airs 11 74-5). Our North Carolina texts vary in a
way that shows the singers improvising.

A.  'Somebody's Tall and Handsome.' Obtained l)y Jesse T. Carpenter from
Mrs. Mary Martin Copley, Route 8, Durham. Not dated.

I Somebody's tall and handsome.
Somebody's eyes are blue,
Somebody's sweet and loving.
Somebody's kind and true.

Chorus:

I love somebody dearly,
I love somebody well.
I love somebody with all my heart ;
'Tis more than tongue can tell.

2 Somebody's tall and handscnne,
Somebody's fair to see,
Somebody's kind and loving,
Somebody smiles on me.

3 Somebody's tall and handsome.
Somebody's brave and true.
Somebody's hair is very bright
And somebody's eyes are blue.

4 Somebody lives in the country,
Somebody boards in town.
Somebody's hair is very dark.
And somebody's eyes are brown.

5 Somebody's heart is faithful.
Somebody's heart is true.
Somebody waits for somebody ;
Somebody knows ; do you ?

6 Somebody's coming to see me,
Somebody came tonight.
Somebody asked me to be his bride
And I answered him, 'All right.'

B.  'Somebody.' Reported in 1923 by Miss Gertrude Allen (later Mrs.
R. C. Vaught), Taylorsville, Alexander county. Stanzas 3-5 of tbis are
not in A.

1 Somebody is tall and handsome.
Somebody is fond and true,
Somebody's hair is rather dark,
And somebody's eyes are too.

2 Somebody loves me dearly.
Somebody loves me well.
Somebody loves me with all his heart ;
It is more than tongue can tell.

3 There's something on my finger,
I know you never could guess.
He gave it to me in the moonlight
Last night when I told him 'Yes.'

4 When I go to promenade the streets
T look so neat and gay
I take my little dog along
To keep the boys away.

Somebody asked me to kiss him,
Somebody thought it was nice ;
Somebody called me his darling girl,
Somebody asked me to kiss him twice.

Somebody's tall and handsome,
Somebody's fond and true,
Somebody's hair is rather light
z\nd somebody's eyes are blue.

 

'Somebody's Tall and Handsome.' Contributed by Miss Jewell Robbins
(later Mrs. C. P. Perdue) of Pekin, Montgomery county, some time
between 1921 and 1923. With the tune. Four stanzas, of which the
first corresponds to stanza 3 of A (except that his hair is here "very
dark"), the second and third to stanza 6 of A and stanza 3 of P>, and
the fourth to stanza 2 of B.

 

'Somebody Is Tall and Handsome.' This is anonymous but is probably
from Mrs. Coffey of Shull's Mills, Watagua county. It is not just the
same as any of the preceding texts but introduces nothing that is not
found in one or another of them.

276

You, You, You

This fragment is in a different rhythm from 'Somebody.' It has
not been found elsewhere.

'You, You, You.' Contributed by Mrs. W. L. Pridgen of Durliam.

Somewhere somebody's waiting for you.
Somewhere somebody's heart is true,
Sometime you'll love somebody who'll love you true.
Somewhere somebody's waiting for you, you, you.

277
Cold Mountains

I have found this reported as folk song elsewhere only by Davis
from Virginia (FSV 93).

'Cold Mountains.' Obtained from Mrs. Minnie Church, Heaton, Avery
county, in 1930. The text seems corrupt in places but is here given as
in the manuscript. With the tune, as sung by Mrs. Alice Cook and by
Miss Hattie McNeill.

I Cold mountains here are all around me.
Cold waters gliding down the stream ;
Oft in my sleep I think I find her
But when I wake it's all a dream.

 

326 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

2 When I awoke and did not tind her
All on my bed I wept and mourned ;
Tears from my eyes fell without number
All because I'm left alone.

3 Hills and mountains all dressed a-mourning,
The lofty trees bown down to me.

Birds of the air are well adourning.
Come help me mourn, she's fled from me.

4 The wild beast hear my limintation,
The lonesome desert hear my mourn,
Yes, heathen nations without number.
Oh, weep ! My bosom friend is gone.

5 When will my mourning days be over?
Yes, all my mourning days be gone?

I can't stay here, I'm not befriended ;
I to some foreign land must roam.

6 Farewell, my dear ; I hate to leave you.
I hate the time that we must part.
Altho I love you without measure,
Here is my hand ; you've got my heart.

278
My Home's across the Smoky Mountains

One of the numerous bits of love lyric current among ballad-
singing folk. This particular bit I have not found reported from
outside the state.

A
'My Home's across the Smoky Mountains.' Reported in June 1948, by
Professor Hudson, from the singing (at Chapel Hill) of Bascom Lamar
Lunsford of South Turkey Creek, Buncombe county. Mr. Lunsfonl
described it as a popular banjo song.

1 My home's across the Smoky Mountains.
My home's across the Smoky Mountains,
My home's across the Smoky Mountains,
And you'll never get to see me any more.

2 Goodbye, little sugar darling.
Goodbye, little sugar darling.
Goodbye, little sugar darling.

You'll never get to see me any more.

3 Rock my baby, feed it candy.
Rock my baby, feed it candy.
Rock my baby, feed it candy.
You'll never get to sec me any more.

 

FOLK LYRIC 327

4 J\I\- home's across the Smoky Mountains.
My home's across the Smoky Moimtains.
My home's across the Smoky Mountains,
And you'll never get to see me an\' more .

R
Tni (k)ing over Rocky Mountain.' Altliough the sheet on whicli it is
written hears no contrihutor's name, there is no reason to question its
genuineness. It was doubtless noted down by Dr. Brown from some
one of his contributors and lie neglected to record the name of his
informant.

1 I'm going over Rocky Mountain,
I'm going over Rocky Mountain.

I'm going over Rocky IMountain, my love,
And I will never see my darling any more.

2 Where is the finger ring I gave you,
Where is the finger ring I gave you,

Where is the finger ring I gave you. my love?
For I'll never see you, darling, any more.

279 Must I Go to Old Virginia?

The only trace of this the editor has found elsewhere is a line
from 'Must I Go to Mississippi ?' reported by Henry from North
Carolina ( SSSA 24), and here the resemblance does not e.xtend
beyond the single line (see stanza 4). But our song bears the
marks of authentic folk song. The last stanza is from The Drowsy
Sleeper.'

'Must I Go to Old Virginia?' From the manuscript songbook of Miss Lura Wagoner of V^ox, Alleghany county, which was lent to Dr. Brown
in 1936.

1 Must I go to old Virginia?
North Carolina is my home.

I used to court a pretty fair gentleman.
And his name it was unknown.

2 His hair was hlack and his eyes did sparkle,
And his cheeks were diamond red.

On his hreast he wore white linen.
Oh, the tears that I have shed !

3 When I am asleep I am dreaming ahout voil
W hen I am awake I take no rest.

Every moment seems like an hour,
Everv moment seems like death.

4 Must 1 go to Mississippi?
For your sake must I die ?

Must I leave you broken-hearted?
Oh law. darling, don't you cry.

5 Papa says I must not marry,
Mama says it will not do ;

But, dear darling, if you are willing
I will run away with you.

6 Wake up, wake up. you drowsy sleepers,
Wake up. it is almost day.

How can you sleep, oh, how can you slumber
When your true love is going away ?

280
Red, White, and Blue

This is the old English song of a lovelorn girl more often called
'Green Grows the Laurel,' concerning which see BSM 480 — and
add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 86), Kentucky
(Shearin 37), North Carolina (FSRA 136), Mississippi (JAFL
XXXIX 147), Missouri (OFS i 273-5), and Michigan (BSSM 102) :
it is also listed for the Midwest (Pound 74). Mrs. Steely found it
in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. Our three texts are
fairly close together, yet their differences interestingly illustrate the
way of the folk with a song.

 

'Red, White, and Blue.' From the manuscripts of G. S. Robinson of
Asheville, obtained in 1939.

1 Ah, once I had a sweetheart but now I have none.
He's gone and left me ; I live all alone.

I live all alone, and contented will be.
For he loves another one better than me.

CJwnis:

Green grow the laurels all wet with the dew.
Sorrow of the time that I i)arted from you.
The next time I see you I hope you'll prove true
And change the green laurels to red, white and blue.

2 I passed my lover's window both morning and night,
I passed my lover's window both early and late.

To see my love sit there it makes my heart ache ;
He's a lad of the laurels, a lad of the lakes.

3 T wrote mv l<)\e a letter all red rosy lines.
She wrote me another all twisted in twine

 

Saying, 'Keep your love-letters and 1 will keep mine.
You write to your sweetheart and I'll write to mine."'

B

'I Once Had a Sweetheart.' Repdrtcd by W. Amos Ahrams as ohtaiiiod
from Margaret Barlowe, a stiuk-nt at tiu- Appalacliiaii 'I'rainiiig Collej^c
at Boone. Not dated.

I 1 once had a .sweetheart, but now I have none,
He's gone and left me and left me alone.
But since he has left me contented I'll be.
He is loving another girl better than me.

Chorus:

Green grows the wild lilies and so does the rose.
It's sad to your heart when parting with yours.
I hope the next meeting we will also prove true
And change the green laurels to the red, white, and
blue.

2 He wrote nie a letter all twinkling and twine;
I wrote him an answer on red roses line.

Saying, 'Keep your love-letters and I will keep mine ;
You write to your sweetheart and I'll write to mine.'

3 He passed by my window both early and late.

The looks that he gave me would make my heart ache.
The looks that he gave me ten thousand would kill ;
He is loving another that makes him quite ill.

4 I of ttimes have wondered how women love men ;
And yet I do wonder how they can love them.
I've had some experience, I want you to know;
Young men are deceitful wherever they go.

 

'Green Grows the Wild Olive.' Reported in 1922 by Miss Mamie Alans-
field of Durham as sung by Miss Madge Nichols.

I once had a sweetheart, but now I have none.
He has gone and left me, and left me alone.
He has gone and left me; but contented I'll be.
He is loving anotl|pr girl better than me.

Chorus:

( jreen grows the wild olive, and so does the rose.

It's sad since I parted my heart from yours.

I hope the next meeting will prove to be true

And change the green olive to the red. white, and blue.

^ Observe that in this stanza it is the man that is speaking. For the
right form of this part see B.

 

281

Down in the Valley (Birmingham Jail)

This is a favorite song in the Southern highlands, known in
Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and also in Louisiana, Texas, Arkan-
sas, and Missouri. See BSM 488, and add to the references there
given Kentucky (ABFS 147-8), Georgia (SSSA 179), Arkansas
(OFS IV 284-5), Oliio (ASb 148), and tlie Archive of American
Folk Song, which has recordings of it from Virginia, Kentucky,
and Texas. Mrs. Steely found two forms of it in the Ebenezer
community in Wake county. In it the theme of far-off valley
sounds heard from a hill top is commonly combined with a con-
vict's love message.

A.  'Down in the Valley.' Contributed by Mildred Peterson of Bladen county
in 1923.

1 Down in the valley, valley so low,

Late in the evening, hear the train blow ;
The train, love, hear the train blow ;
Late in the evening" hear the train blow.

2 To build me a mansion, btiild it so high.
So I can see my true love go by,
Love, see her go by,

So I can see my true love go by.

3 Go write me a letter, send it by mail.

Back it and stamp it to the Birmingham jail.
Birmingham jail, love, Birmingham jail.
Back it and stamp it to the Birmingham jail.

4 Roses are red, love, violets are blue.
God and his angels know I love you,
Know I love you, know I love you,
God and his angels know I love you.

B.  'Birmingham Jail.' Contributed by Otis Kuykendall of Asheville in
August 1939. Here the valley is replaced by the levee — perhaps a more
familiar scene of activity for a convict.

1 Down on the levee, levee so low.

Late in the evening hear the train blow.
Hear the train blow, love, hear the train i)low,
Late in the evening hear the train blow.

2 Roses love sunshine, violets, and you.
Angels in heaven know I love you.
Write nu' a letter, send it by mail ;
Send it in care of the P.irmingham jail.

282 I Sent My Love a Letter

The 'bird in a cage' refrain and the notion of writing a letter to one's love are recurring elements of folk lyric. Something like the combinations of our texts is reported from Kentucky (BKH
141, AS!) 213 — the latter sung by Negroes). Compare also 'Red, White, and Blue' and 'Down in the Valley.' above.

 

Xo title. Obtained from William C. Daulken, student at the University
of North Carolina, in 1915. The manuscript has "him (or her)" in lines
I and 3, to show that it may l)c sung by a woman or a man ; but the
second stanza implies that it should read simply "her."

1 I sent her a letter,
'Twas only one line,
'Twas only to ask her
Would she be mine.

Refrain:

Bird in a cage, love, singing to me,
Bird in a cage, love, singing to me.

2 She sent me a letter,
'Twas only one line,
'Twas only to promise
She would be mine.

B.  'I Wrote My Love a Letter.' Reported by W. Amos Abrams as obtained
(probably in 1935-36) from Mary Best of Statesville, Iredell county.

1 I wrote my love a letter.

It was wrote in rosy red lines ;

He wrote me another.

It was all twisted in twines.

2 He said, 'You can keep your love-letters
And I'll keep mine.

For I love another girl

And I'm going to leave you behind.'

C. 'Birds in the Cage.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

I wonder where my Lulu is.
Can anyone tell?
She's up on the mountain ;
I hope she's doing well.

Chorus:

Birds in the cage, love,
Birds in the cage.
Birds in the cage, love,
Birds in the cage.

2 I wrote her a letter,
It was only one line.
All I wanted was Lulu
To be mine.

3 Go build me a house, love.
Upon the mountain so high,
So I can see Lulu

As she passes by.

4 Go dig my grave, love,
Both deep and wide,
And bury Lulu
Close by my side.

5 Way years ago, love,
You promised to marry me;
But now you say, love,
That never can be.

283 In the Pines, Where the Sun Never Shines

Two songs of a similar temper and containing a few other ele-
ments in common, but not really the same song, are held together
by the use of a very effective refrain or chorus. This refrain is
found also elsewhere in songs that correspond to neither of the two
here given. In Kentucky it appears in a song called 'Black Girl'
(SharpK 11 278) and as a stanza in a version of 'The Maid Freed
from the Gallows' (BKH 113). Gordon (FSA 83-4) has a text
that combines elements that appear in both of our two texts; he
describes it as a banjo picker's song. Our texts are composites,
as American folk songs so often are. The longer of the two con-
tains elements from 'The Lonesome Road,' 'Darling Little Pink.'
and 'The Turtle Dove.' C is merely a fragment.

 

'There's More Than One.' Contributed by Miss Pearl Webb of Pineda, Avery county, some time in 1921-22. The manuscript is confused; the line and stanza division is the editor's, and he confesses that it is uncertain, as in places the text is obviously defective.

I 'Little darling, little darling, don't tell me no lie.
Where did you stay last night?'
'I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines.
1 shivered when the cold wind hlow[edJ.'

Chorus:

To the pines, to the pines, where the sun ne\er shines.
Oh. 1 shivered when the cold wind ])h)wed.

2 Look down, look d(jwn this lonesome road;
Hang down your head and cr}-.

The hest of friends must part some time.
Then why not you and 1 ?

3 You've slighted me once, you've slighted me twice.
You'll never slight me any more.

You've caused me to weep, you've caused me to mourn,
You've caused me to leave my home.

4 The long steel rail and short cross ties
Going to carry me away from home.

5 My love she stands on yonder shore
And waves her hand at me, my love.
And waves her hand at me.

6 Come back, come back, my own true love,
I'll stay with you till I die.

7 The prettiest girl I ever saw

Was sitting with her head bowed down ;
Her hair was as curly as the waves at the sea.
Her eyes a Spanish brown.

8 The longest train I ever saw-
Was on the Georgia line.

The engine passed at five o'clock.
The cab never passed till nine.

9 The longest day I ever saw
Was the day I left my home.
The day I left my daddy's house
Was the day I left my home.

10 Free transportation brought me here.
Take money to carry me away.

11 Oh. don't you see that little dove
Flying from vine to vine?

Tt makes me mourn for my own true love
Just like you mourn for yours.

 

B.  'Mobiline.' Obtained irum Mamie Mansfield of the Fowler School Dis-
trict, Durham county, in July 1922. Was a Mobiline some make ol
automobile ?

1 The prettiest girl 1 ever saw
Was riding a Mobiline.

Her head was crushed in the driving wheel,
Her body was lost but found.

CJionts:

Now darling, now darling, don't tell me no lies ;
Where did you stay last night ?
I stayed in the pines, where the sun never shines.
And shivered when the cold wind blowed.

2 If I had listened to what dad said
1 wouldn't been here tonight,

1 wouldn't been here in this rowdy crowd
A-having this rowdy time.

3 Now don't you hear those mourning doves
belying from pine to pine,

Mourning for their own true love
Just like I mourn for mine?

C. 'The Lonesome Pine.' A record made in 1922 by Miss Hattie McNeill
of Ferguson, Wilkes county, from which the following fragmentary lines
have been transferred.

 

For the longest train I ever saw
Was on my Georgy line.
O darling. O darling, don't tell me no lie.

284 Bonnie Blue Eyes

"A purely North Carolina product," Dr. Brown noted on his
version of this song. Its appearance outside the state lends some
support to this judgment; Davis (FSV 99) reports it from Carroll
and Dickenson counties, Virginia, and the Archive of American
Folk Song has a recording of it from Blount county. Tennessee,
all of which places are on or close to the North Carolina border.
Gordon (F'SA 81) has a nine-stanza version which he describes
as a banjo picker's song but does not say where lie found it.
Randolph COFS iv 209-10) has a four-stanza version from Missouri. Of our texts the first two were published by Louise Rand Bascom in the Journal of American Folk-Lore in 1909. She noted
then that the song was "said to have been written July 5, 1907,"
hut further invcstis^ation convinced her tliat it was "ten years old
at least" at the time she wrote. The versions vary widely. Dr.
Brown remarks that it is a "sort of communal composition, 'i'here
are four or live different versions or fragments."

 

'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' Puhiislied l)y Louise Raiul Bascom in JAFL xxii
243-4. She does not state where in tlie inciuntains she found tliis version.

1 I'm gom otit West next fall.
I'm goin' otit West next fall,

I'm goin' out W^est whar times is the best,
I'm goin' ottt West next fall.

2 Don't cry. little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry. little Bonnie, don't cry,
For if you cry you'll spile your eye.
Don't cry. little Bonnie, don't cry.

3 When you tole me you loved me, you lied,
When you tole me you loved me, you lied.

When you tole me you loved me you lied, my dear.
When you tole me you loved me, you lied.

4 I asked your Mommer for you,
1 asked your Popper for you,

I asked your Popper an' Mommer both for you ;
They both said 'No-oh-no.'

5 I'm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home,

I'm forty-one miles from home, Bonnie Blue Eyes,
I'm forty-one miles from home.

6 I hyar the train comm'. I do.
I hyar the train comin', I do.

I hyar the train comin' to carry me through
To see my little Bonnie Blue l\ves.

7 I'm goin" to see Bonnie Blue Eyes.
I'm goin' to see Bonnie Blue Eyes.
The only girl I ever loved

Was my Bonnie Blue Eyes.

8 But now she's married an' gone,
But now she's married an' gone.

But now she's married. I've waited too long
To get my P)onnie Blue Eyes.

X.C.F., Vol. TTT. (24)

 

336 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

B
'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' This version also Miss Bascoin published in JAFL
XXII 242-3.

1 Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry.
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry.
Don't cry. little Bonnie, don't cry.

2 I hyar the train coniin', I do,
I hyar the train coniin', I do.

I hyar the train comin' to carry me through,
I hyar the train comin', 1 do-o-o.

3 Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry.
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry,

Ef ye cry, little Bonnie, you'll spile your eye.
Don't cry, little Bonnie, don't cry-i-i.

5 I asked your Popper for you,
I asked your Mommer for you,
I asked your Popper an' Mommer for you.
They both said 'No-o-o.'

5 She tole me she loved me, she did.
She tole me she loved me, she did.

She tole me she loved me, she never did lie,
Good-by, little Bonnie, good-by-i-i.

6 Fm forty-one miles from home,
I'm forty-one miles from home,
Pm forty-one miles from home.
Good-bye, little Bonnie Blue Eyes.

7 And now she's married an' gone.
An' now she's married an' gone.
Pve waited around for her too long,
An' now she's married an' gone.

c

'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' A third, much abl)r(.-viatcd, text from Miss Bas-
com's papers; from Highlands, Macon county. W'itli tlic tune.

1 Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,
Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,

You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies.
You ain't my Bonnie Blue Eyes.

2 You tole me you loved me, you always did lie.
Good-bve, little lionnie. good-bye.

 

I' () L K I. V K I c 337

3 The Danville train's in town.

1 know hv the way little P)()nnie does' nnui'
That the train is dne in town.

4 I'm goin' to the West some day,

I'm goin' to the West, but not to stay,
I'm comin' back some day.

D

'Bonnie Blue Eyes.' Manuscript in Dr. Brown's hand, with the notation : "These two stanzas are selected from at least a dozen and a half. . . . Collected near Highlands, N. C." With the tunc.

1 Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye,
Good-bye, little Bonnie, good-bye ;

You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies,
You ain't my Bonnie Blue Eyes.

2 And now I'm far from home,
And now I'm far from home ;

But I love little Bonnie in spite of her lies.
My own, my l->onnie Blue Eyes.

^ Miswritten for "goes" ?

There are also in the Collection two anonymous sheets with the
music for this song.

285
The Midnight Dew

This composite folk lyric has already been published by Louise
Rand Bascom, Highlands, Macon county, in 1909 (JAFL xxii
244-5). It seems desirable, however, to repeat it here; the more so
because the text which she contributed to the present collection
differs slightly from that printed in JAFL. The song seems not to
have been reported elsewhere.

'Midnight Dew.' Contributed by Louise Rand Bascom, Highlands,
Macon county. Printed in JAFL xxii (1909) 244-5. With the tune,
as sung by Airs. N. T. Byers of Silverstone, Watauga county.

1 In the midnight dew, love,
I often think of you.

When I'm rambling in the midnight dew, love,
I often think of you.

2 You can hyar the whistle blow.
You can tell the train I'm on,
You can hyar the whistle blow
A hundred miles from home.

3 I'm a fool about you.

An' you're the only darlin' too,
Lord, but I'm a fool
About you, hoo-hoo.

4 If the train runs right

I'll go home tomorrer night.
You can hyar the wliistle blow
A hundred miles from home.

5 If the train runs a wreck
I'm sure to break my neck ;
I'll never see my honey
Any more, hoo-hoo.

6 My old shoes is worn
An' my ole close is torn.
An' I can't go to meetin'
This way. hoo-hoo.

7 Oh, Lordy me.

For ther's trouble I do see,
Fur nobody cyars
Fur me. hoo-hoo.

8 Oh. it's Lordy me
An' it's oh, Lordy my.

An' I want to go to Heaven
^\'hen I die. hoo-hoo.

9 I'll pawn you my watch
An" my wagon an' my team.

An' if that don't pay my darlin's bill

I'll pawn my gold-diamont ring, hoo-hoo.

10 You've caused me to weep

An' you've caused me to mourn
An' you've caused me to leave
Mv home, hoo-hoo.

11 An' wear this ring I give to you.
An' wear it on your right ban'.
An' when I'm dead an' forgotten.
Don't give it to no other man.^

^ This final stanza appears in the JAFL print as the second of two
stanzas given under the title 'Charming Betsy,' and Miss Rascom com-
ments : "Why the maiden is admonished to wear the love token on her
right hand is a matter for conjecture, unless tlie fond lover is willing
to leave her for another. As a matter of fact, the mountain women

 

286 Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Giri,

Here are asseniblcd a number of songs of rather widely different
character but held toj^ether by a common plirase (sometimes with
"blue-eyed miss" or "pretty little miss" instead of "blue-eyed girl")
in the chorus stanza. They are not always easily to be kept apart
from songs with the "pretty little pink" phrase. Where these latter
are definitely play-party or dance songs they are considered under
the caption 'Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees.' The songs brought
together here are not described by the contributors as play-party
songs — though some of them may have been so used. A song
using the phrase reported by Sharp from North Carolina, "Betty Anne' (SharpK ii ;^/), is not considered by him a play-party song.
There is in our collection a record of the song as sung by Miss
Hattie McNeill of Ferguson, Wilkes county, in 1922.

 

'That Blue-Eyed Girl.' Sung by Rynic-r, a banju-pickcr, in "The

Beats" near the mouth of Newfound Creek in Buncombe county. This
is reminiscent of the English milkmaid song 'Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?"

1 How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey ?

She looked at me with a smiling look :
'I'll be sixteen next Sunday.'

C horns:

It's fly around, my bl'te-eyed girl,
It's fly around, my daisy ;
It's fly around, my pretty little miss —
You've done run me crazy.

2 Will you marry me, my pretty little miss?
Will you marry me, my honey?

She looked at me with a smiling look :
'I'll marry you some Sunday.'

3 It's every day and Sunday too,
It seems so dark and hazy,

I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
She's done run me crazy.

 

practically never wear rings." In place of our final stanza the JAl'I.
print closes with one about the "lonesome road" :

You've caused me to walk

That long lonesome road

Which has never been

Travelled afore, hoo-hoo.

 

340 X () R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

4 It's every day and Sunday too
I liang my head and cry ;

I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
Oh, surely 1 will die !

5 If I had no horse at all,
I'd be found a-cra\vlin'

Up and down the rocky branch
Looking for my darlin'.

B

No title. Collected from James York, Olin, Iredell county, in August
1939. The final stanza is from 'Bonnie Blue Eyes' ; stanza 3 seems to
belong to some convict's song. The first stanza may be assumed to be
a chorus.

1 Fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
Fly around, my daisy ;

Fly around, my blue-eyed girl.
You almost run me crazy.

2 Hard to love when you can't be loved.
It's hard to change your mind.

You've broke my heart, you've killed me dead.
You left me far behind.

3 They bound my hands with iron bands,
They bound my feet with chains ;
And before I leave my sweet daisy
I'd wear the old shackles again.

4 Don't cry. my bonnie bltte eyes,
Don't cry. my bonnie, don't cry ;
For if you cry you'll spoil your eyes ;
Don't cry. my bonnie blue eyes.

 

'Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss.' Contrilnitod in 1939 by Otis
Kuykendall of Asheville. The penultimate stanza appears in various
songs of the mountain folk.

 

I The stormy clotids are rising.
It sure looks like rain.
Hitch uj) Mike and Charlie, boys.
And drive little Liza Jane.

Chants:

Fly around, my i)retty littk" miss,
l'"ly around, my dai.sy.
l"ly around, my pretty little miss,
You almost run me crazy.

2 Went up on the mountain top.
Gave my horn a blow.
Thought 1 heard somebody say,
'Yonder comes my beau.'

3 You may ride the grey horse
.And I will ride the roan ;
^'ou may court the other girl.
But leave mine alone.

D

'The Blue-Eyed Girl.' Reported by I. G. Greer from the singing of
Mrs. N. J. Herring of Tomaliawk, Sampson county. Highly composite.
For what is here marked "chorus" see 'Shady Grove' ; the needle and
thread stanza belongs to a play-party song, 'Wish I Had a Needle and
Thread"; and the joke about the yellow girl's kinky hair is one of the
floating items of Negro (or pseudo-Negro) song.

1 Fly around, my blue-eyed miss,
Fly around, my daisy ;

Fly around, my blue-eyed miss,
You're about to run me crazy.

Chorus:

Shady grove, my little love.
Shady grove, I say ;
Shady grove, my little love,
Going far away.

2 Massy had a yellow girl.
Brought her from the South ;

Her hair way^ kinked upon her head
She couldn't shut her mouth.

3 I wish I had a needle and thread
As fine as I could sew ;

I'd sew my sweetheart to my side
And down the river I'd go.

4 Wish I had a banjo string
Made of golden twine ;
Evry tune I could pick on it
'I wish that gal was mine.'

5 \\ ish I was a mocking-l)ird
In yonders mountain high ;
I'd take wings and fly

To mv true love's side.-

^ Should this be "was" ?

- This stanza is marked "Cho. 5." meaning perha])s tliat it takes the
place, at the end of the song, of the lines marked "chorus" above.

 

342 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

287

Darling Little Pink

Stanzas addressed to "pretty little pink" occur frequently in play-
party songs, especially in 'Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees,' under
which title they are dealt with in the present volume. Another
movable phrase, "Fly around, my pretty little miss," not, apparently,
associated with play-party songs, is considered under "Fly Around,
My Blue-Eyed Girl.' Tlie song here presented 1 have not found
elsewhere — though its temper is common enough in love songs of
the folk.

'My Darling Little Pink.' From the collection of Louise Rand Bas-
com, Highlands, Macon county, 1914.

1 My darling little pink, won't you tell nie what you think?
You're a long time a-makin' up your min'.

You've tole me more lies than the stars in the skies,
An' your heart is no more of mine.

2 If your heart was mine, my dear little pet,
You would lean it across my breast.

3 I've been to the east and I've been to the west
An' I've been most everywhere.

An' the only girl I ever loved

W'as the one with the bright yellow hair.

4 Lord, I've seen more trouble than any pore boy
Than^ the sun has ever shined on.

Hand me down a bottle of that old morphine
An' I'll try for to ease my pain.

5 If it hadn't been for my babe and my blue-eyed girl
I would have slept in my lonesome grave.

The longest train that I ever seen was leavin' the micer's-

mine.
The engine was a-pullin' on a nine mile grade
An' the cabins- had never left the town.

288

Billy My Darling

A fragment of folk lyric. It has no connection with 'Billy Boy,'
but the last two lines of A suggest the second stanza of 'Down in
the Valley' A (p. 330).

A
'Billy." Kcpnrti-d l>y .Mrs. .Sutton in 1922, l)ut slie does not say whore
she heard it. With tlic tunc

' Probably niiswritten for "That."

" iMir "iniccr's" read "luica," and for "cabins" read "caboose."

 

r () L K 1. V R 1 I' 343

Billy. Ill}' darling', Hilly, my dear,

W hen you think 1 don't love you it's a foolish idea^

Up in a tree-top high as the sky,

1 can see Billy, Billy pass by.

B

'Hilly.' An earlier reporting by Mrs. Sutton of the same song, lacking
the last two lines.

 

289

Seeing Nelly Home

Few songs are more widely known in American colleges, or in-
deed among American singing folk generally, than 'Aunt Dinah's
Quilting Party' (credited in the Sears Supplement to "J. Fletcher,
words by F. Kyle"). Our collection has a text of this obtained
by L. \V. Anderson from Maxine Tillett, pupil in the school at
Nag's Head ; it does not differ from the form found in college
songbooks and is therefore not presented here. But there is also
a quite ditTerent text — perhaps the original, perhaps an elaboration,
of the familiar song — which it seems worth while to give.

'When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home.' From Miss Duo K. Smith, Houston
ville, Iredell county. No date given.

1 In the sky the bright stars glittered.
On the grass the moonlight fell.
Hushed the sound of daylight's Inistle,
Closed the pink-eyed pimpernell.

As down the moss-covered wood-path,
\\ here the cattle loved to roam.
From Aunt Dinah's quilting partv
I was seeing Nellie home.

Chorus:

W hen I saw sweet Nellie home,
When I saw sweet Nellie home ;
How I bless the August evening
When I saw sweet Nellie home !

2 Pretty ringlets softly fluttered
O'er a brow as white as snow%
And her cheek — the crimson sttnset
Scarcely had a warmer glow.

'Mid her parted lips' vermilion
\\'hite teeth flashed like the ocean foam ;
All I marked with pulses throbbing
As I saw sweet Nellie home.

 

344 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

3 When autumn tinged the greenwood,
Turning all the leaves to gold,

In the lawns by alders shaded
I my love to Nellie told.
As we stood together, gazing
On the star-bespangled dome.
How I blessed the autumn evening
When I saw sweet Xellie home !

4 White hairs mingle with my tresses.
Furrows steal upon ni}- brow.

But a love-smile cheers and blesses
Life's declining moments now.
Matron in a snowy kerchief.
Closer to my bosom come ;
Tell me, dost thou still remember
When I saw sweet Nellie home?

290

Troubled in Mind

Two songs are here brought together because they have in com-
mon the phrase and the thought wliich I have chosen for title.
Otherwise they are quite unlike. Both are composites — as folk
lyrics so often are — of divers elements. Stanza 2 of A is from
'The Cuckoo' ; stanzas 3, 4, and 6 belong to "The Wagoner's Lad.'
Stanza 3 of B is a stock piece, separately treated in the present
volume; stanza 4 is another, likely to turn up anywhere but espe-
cially in Negro jingles about animals. For the "I'll eat when Lm
hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry" stanza, which goes far back in
English balladry, see 'Cornbread When I'm Hungry,' below, and
'Cindy,' No. 404, in this volume.

A

No title. Collected from James York, Olin, Iredell county, in 1939.

1 I'm troubled. I'm troubled,
Lm troubled in mind.

And if trouble don't kill me
I'll live a long time.

2 The lark is a pretty bird
.\nd she sings as she flies
And she brings tLs glad tidings
That summer is nigh.

3 ( )h. Polly, ])retty Folly,

W <ndd you think it tuikind
If I shoidd sit by \du
And tell von mv mind ?

 

1" () L K 1. Y K I C 345

4 My iiiiiid is to mai"r\-
And never to part ;

Tlie tirst time 1 saw \(iu
^'(•11 wdunck'd nn- heart.

5 P^irewell. pretty I'olly,
I'll hid you adieu.

I'm ruined forever
Uy loving of you.

6 Your i)arents ddu't like me

They say I'm not worthy
( )f knocking their door.

7 Your lii)s are enticing.
Your tongue bids me come.
If angels don't like me

Oh surely I'm done !

8 I've strove on the mountains,
I've strove on the plains.
I've strove to forget you,
But all is in vain.

9 I'll eat when I'm hungry,
I'll drink when I'm dry;
I'll think of you, Molly.
And sit down and cry.

10 I've rambled this country
Both early and late.

So hard is my fortune.
My troubles was great.

1 1 And since it's no better
I'm glad it's no worse;
There's whiskey in bottles
And gold in mv i)urse.

 

'I'm Troubled.' Collected by Julian P. Royd in 1027 from Catherine
Bennett, one of his pupils in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.

I Beefsteak for my breakfast.
Whiskey when I'm dry;
Pretty gals when I'm funny,
And 1 leben when I die.

 

,_,() NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Clionis:

I'm troubled, I'm troubled,
I'm troubled in my mind,
Troubled 'bout de pretty little gal,
De gal I left behind.

2 You may ride de borrowed horse,
I will ride my own.

If you won't bother my sweetheart
I won't bother yourn.

3 If I had a scolding wife
I'd whip her sho's she bo'n ;

I'd take her down to New Cleans
And trade her ofif for co'n.

4 Possum up de 'simmon tree,
Raccoon on de ground ;

De raccoon says to de possum.
'Won't you hand me a 'simmon down?'

291

CORNBREAD WhEN I'm HuNGRY

Til eat when I'tii hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry' is old in
English balladry; it appears in an eighteenth-century print {Rox-
biirglic Ballads viii 613). And with cornbread and whiskey (some-
times beefsteak and corn li(iuor ) as the preferred diet, it is very
widespread in the Southern states: sung in Kentucky (Shearin 38,
SharpK 11 355), Tennessee (JAFL xxviii 129), Mississippi (JAFL
xxviii 181, 182), and the Ozarks (JAFL xxviii 182, OFS in
135-9). 'ind also by the Negroes (Talley 114). Stout reports it
from Iowa (MAFLS xxix 140). The second stanza of A is re-
ported as Negro song by Odum (JAFL xxiv 278) and the first
stanza of B by Perrow (JAFL xxviii 141) and by White (ANFS
381). See also 'Troubled in Mind' and 'Cindy' in the present
collection.

A

'Cdrnbreaci When I'm Hungry.' Reported by William B. Covington as
among his "reminiscences of my early youtli spent in the country on
tlie l)orcler of the sand hills of Scotland county." He calls it "the sun-
down song of the plowboy."

1 Cornbread when I'm hungry.
Corn liquin- when I'm dry.
Pretty girl when I'm hard up,
In heaven when 1 die.
I don't want to go.
I ddu't want to go.

 

> L K LYRIC 347

2 Make mv down a pallet
And lie down on the floor,
Lie down on the floor.
Lie down on the floor,
Make me down a pallet
And lie down on the floor.

B

'Olc Massa in de Parlor." Prom Miss Clara Hearne of Pittsboro, Cliat-
ham county, in 1923.

1 Ole massa in de parlor,
Ole missus in de hall,
Nigger in de dinin' room
Farin' de bes' of all.

2 It's beefsteak when I'm hungry.
An' whiskey when Lm dry.

It's greenback when I'm busted,
An' heaven when I die.

292

Lonesome Road

Whether or not this image of the lonely road conies from the
spirituals — Negroes are especially fond of it — it seems to belong
to the folk song of the South. It is recorded from the singing of
Negroes in Virginia (TNFS -t,), North Carolina (ANFS 300-1),
South Carolina (OSC 404), Georgia (JAFL x 116), and without
specific location by Oduni in JAFL xxiv 272 and NWS 46; and
as sung apparently bv whites in Virginia (SCSM 326, O.SC 146-7),
Kentucky (FSKH 28-9, SFLQ in 115). and Florida (SFLQ viii
188). In many of these instances it is just an element in a song;
the texts vary widely. For the spirit displayed in stanzas 2 and 3
of A and 4 of B compare 'A False-Hearted Lover' in Volume II
of this collection and BSM 476, 492.

A

'Lonesome Road.' Contributed by Miss Gertrude Allen (afterwards Mrs.
R. C. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. No date given.

1 Look up, look down that lonesome road
\\ here you and I have been, my love.
Where you and I have been.

2 You've slighted me once, you've slighted me twice,
You'll never slight me any more, my love.

You'll never slight me any more.

3 There's more than one, there's more than two.
There's more pretty girls than you, my love.
There's more pretty girls than you.

 

348 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

4 I loved you once, 1 loved you twice,

1 loved you more than cats love mice,
Yes, more than cats love mice.

5 If you loved me like I loved you
No knife could cut our love in two.
Could cut our love in two.

B

'Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road.' From Miss Jane Christen-
bury. a student at Trinity College. Not dated, Init proliably in 1923.
With the music.

1 Look u)), look down that lonesome road.
Hang down your head and cry, my love.
Hang down your head and cry.

2 You slighted me once, you slighted me twice ;
You'll never slight me any more, my love,
You'll never slight me any more.

3 You slighted me for that other girl ;

So now you may take her and go, my love,
So now you may take her and go.

4 There's more than one, there's more than two.
There's more pretty hoys than you, my love,
There's more pretty hoys than you.

5 To the pines, to the pines, where the sim never shines
And it shivers when the cold wind hlows, my love.
And it shivers when the cold wind hlows. ^

6 The hlackest crow that ever was seen
\\ as flying from pine to pine, my love,
Was flying from pine to pine.

7 The longest train that ever had run

Was going down old Georgia line, my love,
Was going down old Georgia line.

' This stanza has crept in from another song, 'hi the P'nes, in the
Pines. Where the Sun Never Shines.'

293 You Lovers All, to You I Call

'I'his I have not found elsewhere, but it has a definite folk quality.

'You Lovers All, to You I Call.' Contributed by L. W. .Anderson of Nag's Head as "sung to me by Mrs. J. A. Best, wlio said she learned it from her father, whose father, Francis Asbury Meekins (1818-81),
also knew it."

" The last two stanzas are bits of the floating lyric of the folk, likely
to appear in almost any love song.

 

1 You lovers all, to you 1 call.
A story T will tell ;

J low 1, a swain, courted in vain
.\ maid none could excel.

2 I fell in love so hard to move,
To you I will express.

But to my grief found no relief.
For she was pitiless.

3 My love was tall, her waist was small.
She was in all complete.

Her hands was clean as ever was seen
More nicer was her feet.

4 Her lily breast, I do protest.
Was colored like the snow.

Oh. she is neat, speaks mild and sweet
Cood-natured. that's also.

 

294

W'liEx First I Seen This Lovely Queen

Although I have not found it elsewhere, this lively song bears its
own authentication as folk song. The interior rhyme in the first
and third lines of each stanza suggests an origin in eighteenth-
century stall print, which was much given to that form of verse.

'When First I Seen This Lovely Queen.' Reported by L. W. Anderson
of Nag's Head as "sung to me by Mrs. J. A. Best, who said she learned
it from her father, whose father, Francis Asbury Meekins (1818-81),
also knew it."

1 When first I seen this lovely queen
( )n her I fixed my eyes.

And thought in time, while in my prime.
To gain her I would try.

2 But all in vain; could not obtain
This virgin's love at all.

She'd not comply; and the reason why?
My portion was too small.

3 If she proves coy and won't comi)ly.
No grief it is to me.

My suit ni move, and hunt a love
Perhaps as good as she.

 

350 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Sweet Birds

This love song seems, from the number of copies in our collection,
to be something of a favorite in North Carolina. It has been
previously reported from the state (BMFSB 58-9), Davis reports it
from Virginia (FSV 103), and Shearin's syllabus shows that it is
or has been known in Kentucky. Its authorship has not been dis-
covered. The curious use of "ferns" for "birds" in texts C and G
is supported if not explained by the Beech Mountain text, which
makes the same substitution. Though all of our texts clearly de-
rive from a common original, no two of them are just alike: some-
times even new rhymes have been devised.

A

'Sweet Birds.' Contributed by Wagner .\. Reese in 1921 or 1922; locale
not noted. With the music.

1 The birds are returning their sweet notes of spring
O'er meadows and brooklets so near

'Way down by the dell where they joyttilly sing

A message of hope and good cheer,

As I sit in the dream of my slumber so deep

For my darling far over the sea.

Jtist ask the sweet birds as they drop off to sleep.

Oh, say. does he truly love me?

Chorus:

Sweet birds, sweet birds.

Oh. say that my lover is true.

Sweet birds, sweet birds.

And then I'll be as happy as you.

2 Oh, tell me. sweet birds, is he thinking of me
And the promise he made long ago ?

I would gladly give all this world if he'd come l)ack to me.

Oh, why do the years roll so slow ?

I'm weary and heart-sick of w^aiting so long

For my darling far over the sea.

Just go to him singing your beautiful song

And tell him to come back to me.

3 He said when we parted he loved no one but me.
He called me his darling, his ])ride ;

He said when he came from over the sea

YitW make me his own cherished bride.

l>ut I tear he has found iii some tar distaul land

Some face that is fairer than mine.

I would give all this world for one clasp of his hand

And know that his heart is still mine.

 

r () I. K 1. V K 1 c 351

J{

'Swcft Bird.' I-'roin tlic niaiuiscript soiighook of Jiiaiiita Tillitt, Wan-
chese, Roanoke Lslaiul, ohtainoci in March 1923. 'I'hc order of the staiiza>i
is changed liere, and there are many minor \ariations.

1 Tell nie. sweet bird, is he thiiikiiiL; ot me
And the promise he made loiii^- ai;u?

If he wotild return, how happy I'd be!
Oh. why does the years creep so slow ?
I'm tired and heart-sick of waiting so long
For my lover who's far o'er the sea.
Go to him and sing him yotir heatitiftil song
And tell him to come back to me.

Chants:

O bird, sweet l^ird,

Tell me my lover is true !

O bird, sweet bird,

I'll [be] as happy as you.

2 He told me when parting he loved only me.
He called me his joy and his pride;

Said when he returned from over the sea

He'd make me his own happy bride.

I fear he has found in some far distant land

A face that is fairer to view.

I'd give the whole world for a grasp of his hand

.\nd to know that my lover is true.

3 \\'hen the birds are a-tuning their sweet notes of spring
And the brooks and the meadows I see,

Now in the deep they joyously sing
And the silver brooks sparkles so clear,
I'll sit myself down in a shadow so deep
For my lover who's far o'er the sea,
I'll ask all the birds as they go off to sleep
Do they think that he truly loves me?

c

'Sweet Fern.'^ Obtained from Mrs. Minnie Church of Heaton, Avery
county, in 1930. One of the "fern" texts, and differing also in other
details from A and l'>. After the chorus following stanza 2 the manu-
script directs : "Yodel."

I Spring time is coming, sweet lonesome birds.
Yotir echo in the woodland 1 hear ;
Down in the meadow so lonesome you sing
While the moonlight is shining so clear.
But I know he's away in a far distant land.

^ Spelled "firn" througliout in the manuscript.
X.C.F., \u\. Ill, (25)

 

352 NORTH CAROLINA F O L K L R E

A land that is over the sea.

(io fly to him singing your sweet Httle song

And tell him to come back to me.

Clionts:

Sweet fern, sweet fern.

Oh. tell me is my darling still true?

Sweet fern, sweet fern.

I'll be just as happy as you !

2 Oh, tell me. sweet fern, is he thinking of me?
In a promise he made long ago

He said he'd return from over the sea.

Oh, why does the years roll so slow?

I know he's away in a far distant land,

A land that is over the sea.

Go, fly to him singing your sweet little song

And tell him to come back to me.

3 Upon my finger he placed a gold ring
The day he was leaving his home.

I promised I'd be his own dear little girl

And love him wherever he'd go.

But I know he's away in a far distant land,

A land that is over the sea.

Go, fly to him singing your sweet little song

And tell him to come back to me.

D

'Sweet Birds.' From the manuscript soiigbuok of Miss Lura Wagoner
of Vox, Alleghany county, where it is dated October 30, 191 1. A some-
what reduced version, but it introduces no new elements.

 

'Sweet Birds.' An anonymous version, but no doubt authentic. Its last
stanza somewhat expands the latter part of stanza 2 of A :

Oh, why do the days glide by so slowly,

Oh, why do the days seem so long?

If he would only come back to me.

Oh, then how happy I would be !

I am weary, heart-sick of waiting so long

For my darling far over the sea.

Just fly to him singing some beautiful song

.And tell him to come back to me.

F

'Sweet Birds.' /\ fragmentary transcript of one stanza and the chorus
from a record ascribed to 1. G. Greer of iioone, Watauga county.

 

FOLK I, V K I C 353

 

'Sweet Finn.' The chorus only, with "firn" for "bird," reported by
Airs. \'aught, aijparently from Oakhoro. Stanly county.

296

Going B.ack West "fore Long

A Neg^ro work song (NWS 124-5) l)egins 'Tin goin' out West,"
and our A text of 'Bonnie Blue Eyes' begins "I'm going out west
next fall," but this fragment seems to belong to neither.

No title. From Lucille Cheek of Cliatham county, proliably in 1923.

Ciuing back West 'fore long,

Going back West 'fore long,

I got a little wife, she is the joy <>f my life,

And I'm going back West 'fore long.

297
You Caused Me to Lose Mv Mind

The second of these two stanzas is a commonplace of folk love
lyric and is found in many of the songs in this section. See also
BSM 484-5. The first stanza also is one of the floating elements
of folk song; see 'The Midnight Dew^' above. A song called 'Daisy'
from North Carolina (JAFL vi 134) and a text of 'Shady Grove'
from Tennessee (JAFL xxviii 183) have it, though with "nearly
drives me crazy" instead of "you caused me to lose my mind."

'You Caused Me to Lose My Mind.' Contri!)uted by Effie Tucker; no
date or place indicated.

1 Oh. Mary girl, oh. Mary girl,
What makes you treat me so?

Yoti caused me to weep, you caused mc to mourn,
You caused me to lose my mind.

2 (Jh, do you see that turkle dove
A-flying from pine to pine?

She mourns for her own true love ;
Why not 1 mourn for mine?

298

I Wish Th.\t Girl Was Mine

Shearin in his Syllabus, p. 38, lists as known in Kentucky a song
that may be the same as this. Otherwise it seems to have escaped
the collector's net. Is it a play-party song?

'I Wish That Girl Was Mine.' From the manuscripts of G. S. Robin-
son of Asheville, obtained in 1939.

 

354 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

1 When I was a little boy.
Just eighteen inches high,

How I'd hug and kiss those girls
To see their mammas cry !

Chorus:

(_)h. 1 wish that girl was mine.
Oh, 1 wish that girl was mine !
The only tune that I can play
Is T wish that girl was mine.'

2 I'll have my banjo painted red.

And e\ery

And the only tune 1 can play

Is T wish that girl was mine.'

3 ( )h, you better quit that stealin'
Kisses on the sly.

For the devil he's a-waitin'
For to get you when you die.

4 Well, I'm gonna die some of these days,
\\ hen it comes my time ;

And the last words I expect to say,
T wish that "irl was mine.'

 

299

Cripple Creek

The discovery of precious metals at Cripple Creek. Colorado,^
made a strong impression on the imagination of people in the East.
This song is or has been known in Virginia (FSV 247-8), Ken-
tucky (Shearin 39, SharpK 11 359), Tennessee (JAFL xxviii
180-1), South Carolina (JAFL xxviii 181), Wisconsin (JAFL iii
48), Nebraska (BTFLS vi 40-1), and doubtless elsewhere. Ford,
Traditional Music of America 94, reports it as a square dance song
in the Middle West.

A

No title. Contributed by Miss Gertrude Alien (afterwards Mrs. R. C.
Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. Not dated.

1 Going up Cripple Creek,
(joing up town,
(joing up Cripple Creek
To see Sally Brown.

^ Perrow, in a note to his text from Tennessee mountain whites (JAFL
XXVIII 180), says that Cripple Creek is "a well known mining district
in Virginia" (in Wythe county, in the western neck of the state). But
the Nebraska text says expressly "I come from Cripple Creek, Colorado."

 

FOLK L V K 1 C 355

 

2 L'p the rixtT

And across the creek.
Never get a letter
But twice a week.

3 Going up Cripple Creek,
Going on the run.
Going up Cripple Creek
To have a little fun.

 

B

 

'Cripple Creek.' From Mrs. Arthur Moore of Lenoir, Caldwell county.
in iy22. One stanza only — the last stanza of A. With the tune.

300

My Martha Ann

Better known as 'My Mary Ann' (Heart Songs 246; JAFL .\xxi
175-6, from the Province of Quebec), this is one of the many
detritus lyrics current in ore popnli. The text from Quebec and
that in Heart Songs are essentially the same as ours except for
the name. Less closely related are texts from West Virginia (FSS
433-4) and Tennessee (F'SSH 207).

'My Martha Ann.' Contributed by the Misses Holeman of Durham in
1922, with the notation: "Found in old desk purchased in Person county."
The first of these three stanzas is really the chorus.

1 Oh. fare ye well, my own Martha Ann.
Fare ye well for a while :

This ship is ready and the wind is fair
And I am hound to sea. Martha Ann.

2 Oh. don't you see a turtle dove
Sitting on yonder pile.^

Lamenting the loss of his own true love
As I do for my Martha Ann ?

3 A lobster in a lobster pot.
A blue-fish on a hook.

May sufifer some, but you know not
What I do feel for my Martha .\im.

301

High-Topped Shoks

Two songs in the collection are held together only by the (|uery
about the high-topped shoes, but it furnishes the title for l)oth. The
A text begins with the shoe-and-glove dialogue from "The Lass of

^ Other texts of this stanza — see for instance 'The Turtle Dove' in
the present collection — show that "pile" .should be "pine."

 

356 X O R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Roch Royal,' proceeds to a bitter denunciation of a false lover, and
closes with the stanza about the hig-h-topped shoes. The B text
starts with the his:h-topped shoes and passes on to a veritable med-
ley that includes reminiscences of 'The Lonesome Road,' 'The In-
constant Lover,' and other songs. There is also in the Collection
a record of this song as sung by Bonnie and Lola Wiseman at Hin-
son's Creek, Avery county, in 1939.

 

'Those High Topped Shoes." As sung by Herman Houck of Jefferson.
Ashe county. There is no indication of the date. A recording was made.

1 'Who's going to shoe those little feet.
Or glove those little hands?

And who's going to kiss those rosy cheeks
Way in some foreign land ?'

2 'Papa will shoe those little feet
And glove those little hands' ;
'And I will kiss those rosy cheeks
\\ ay in some foreign land.'

3 'Sometimes I wish I'd never been born
Or had died when I was yotmg.

And never had seen that smiling face
Or heard that lying tongtie.'

4 'Oh, where did you get those high topped shoes.
That dress that fits so fine ?'

T got those shoes from a railroad^ man
And my dress from a driver in the mines.'

B

'High Topped Shoes.' Obtained from Rosa Efird of Stanly county. Not
dated.

1 rj)h, where did you get your high topped shoes
And the dress you wear so fine, ni}- love,
And the dress you wear so fine ?

2 I got my shoes from a railroad man.
My dress from a driver in mind.
And my dress from a dri\er in mind.

3 The short cross ties and the long steel rails
Was the cause of me leaving my home, my love.
Was the cause of me leaving my home.

4 The longest train that I ever saw

Was around John Raleigh's grave, mv love.
Was around John Raleigh's grave.

' An alternative — or an explanation — of this word is given in the
manuscript : "gaml)ling."

 

K () I. K 1. V U 1 c 357

5 'l"he engine passed at halt past nine.

The cars were passing- at twelve, my l(>\e.
The cars were passinji; at twelve.

6 Look nj). look down that lonesome road;
llang down yonr head and cry. my love,

I lani^- down your head and cry.

7 There's more than one. there's more than two,
There's more pretty j;irls than you, my love,
There's more pretty girls than you.

8 You turned me down for the other fellow ;
So take him now and go. my love.

So take him now and go.

9 You fooled me once, you fooled me twice.
But you cannot fool me again, my love,
But you cannot fool me again.

302

Who's Gonna Love You, Honfa?

Tills fragment of folk lyric 1 have not found elsewhere.

'Who's Gonna Love You, Honey?" Reported in 1922 by Miss Doris
Overton (later Mrs. Kenneth M. Brim) from Greenville. Pitt county.

Who's gonna love you. honey, when I'm away?
Who's gonna stay and say sweet things every day?
Who's gonna look into your eyes divine?
Who's gonna kiss those lips that I call mine?
Who's gonna do those things Lve done for you?
Who's gonna love you when Lm gone?

303

Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?

Although this has not been found elsewhere, it seems pretty clearly
to be a folk lyric of the same general temper as 'Adieu to Cold
Weather' in the Missouri collection (BSM 491--.) • There are three
texts in the North Carolina Collection.

A
'Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?' From the inanuscri])! songbook of
Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, Alleghany county.

I ( )h, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell?

Uh, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell?

Oh, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell?
Can anvone, anvone tell ?

 

358 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

2 He is flirting with another, I know very well.
He is flirting with another, I know very well.
He is flirting with another, I know very well,
1 know. I know \ery well.

3 Just tell him keep on his flirting. I'm sure I don't care,
Just tell him keep on his flirting, I'm sure I don't care,
Just tell him keep on his flirting, I'm sure I don't care,
I'm sure. I'm sure I don't care.

4 He told me he loved me ; he told me a lie.
He told me he loved me ; he told me a lie.
He told me he loved me ; he told me a lie,
He told me. he told me a lie.

5 Doggone him, I hate him ; I wish he would leave.
Doggone him, I hate him ; I wish he would leave.
Doggone him, I hate him ; I wish he would leave,
I wish. I wish he would leave.

6 I've found me another I love just as well.
I've found me another I love just as well,
I've found me another I love just as well,
I love, I love just as well.

7 God hless him. 1 love him, I wish he was mine.
God bless him, I love him, I wish he was mine.
God bless him, I love him, I wish he was mine,
I wish, I wish he was mine.

B

'Oil. Where Is My Sweetheart?' Contributed by Ella Smith; it is not
clear whether from Johnston, or Pitt, or Yadkin county. Four stanzas.
The first two correspond to the first two of A. except that in stanza 2
"I know very well" becomes "I know^ him too well." Stanza 3 cor-
responds to stanza 5 of A except that "I wish he would leave" becomes
"I wish he were dead." And it closes:

Ciod l:)less him, I love him; I'll take it all back.
( lod bless him, I love him ; I'll take it all back,
I'll take it, I'll take it all back.

c

'Oh. Where Is My Sweetheart?' Contributed by M. Masten of
Winston-Salem in 1914. This has so many minor variations from A
that it is given entire, except for the repetition of the lines. The first line
of each stanza is sung three times, as in A.

1 ( )h. where is m\- true love? Can anyone tell?
Can any. anyone tell ?

2 lie's courting another. I kncjw it too well,
1 l<now. I know it too well.

 

FOLK I. V K I C 359

3 Just k'l him keep courting:;. I'm sure 1 dou't care,
Tin sure. I'm sure 1 don't care.

4 lie's tall and he's handsome and he wears a l)hie tie,
lie wears, he wears a blue tie.

5 I told him that I loved him. I told him the truth,
I told him. 1 told him the truth.

6 lie told me he loved me. he t(jld me a lie.
He told, he told me a lie.

7 (k)d bless him, I love him. go briny him to me.
Go bring, go bring him to me.

8 Doggone him. I hate him. 1 wish he was dead,
I wish, I wish he was dead.

 

304

Like an Owl in the Desert

One of the fragments of folk lyric that float about in the mem-
ories and on the tongues of ballad-singing folk. Like it in temper is
a song from Mississippi (JAFL xxviii 169-70) and another from
Missouri (BSM 493) ; but neither has the image of the owl.

'The Owl in the Desert.' Contributed by Thomas Smith of Zionville.
Watauga couuty. in March 1915. with the notation :' "Old love song
sung by Mrs. Peggy Perry, March 11. 1915. She heard this sung when
a girl over 60 years ago."

1 Like an owl in the desert
I weep, mourn, and cry ;
If love should overtake me
I surely would die.

2 I can love like a loveyer
A nd I can love long ;

I can love an old sweetheart
Till a new one comes along.

3 1 can love him and kiss him
And keep him confined.
And turn my back on him.
And also my mind.

 

305
The Lonesome Dove

This widower's lament has not been traced to its origin, but it may
afely be assumed to be an inheritance from the somewhat lach-

 

360 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

ryniose religious sentiment so pervasive in the early nineteenth cen-
tury. It has been reported as popular song from Pennsylvania,
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia.^ Missouri, and Wisconsin,
and is no doubt known elsewhere. Our North Carolina text is con-
siderably reduced from the full form reprinted by Jackson from
The Social Harp of 1855. The tune, as sung by Mrs. Joseph ^Miller
of Silverstone in 1922, is on Record 7-V. See BSM 486, and add
to the references there given Virginia (FSV 113), Missouri (OFS
IV 39-40), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii 13-4).

'The Lonesome Dove.' Contributed by Thomas Smith of Zionville,
Watauga county, with the notation that he sends it "because it has been
sung for so many years (probably near 100) in this county. Mrs. Chane
Smith, Zionville, says she heard it when a child, which was near 80
years ago. Mrs. Julia Grogan, Silverstone, N. C. sang the song recently
for me. She says her father, John Yarber, used to sing 'The Lonesome
Dove.' " The stanza division is based on Jackson's Georgia text.

1 One day while in a lonesome grove
Sat o'er my head a little dove ;
For her lost mate began to coo.

It made me think of my love, too.

2 Oh, little dove, you are not alone,
For I, like you, am left to mourn.

3 Consumption seized my love so dear ;
She lingered there for one long year
Until death came at break of day
And stole my loving wife away.

4 But death, grim death, did not stop here.
I had one child, to me most dear.
Death, like a vtilture, came again

And took from me my little Jane.

5 But, bless the Lord, his w(jrds are given
Declaring babes are heirs of heaven.

306

By By, My Honey

A composite of familiar motives: the shoe-and-glove dialogue
from 'The Lass of Roch Royal,' the lonesome-road motive, and a
lover's mocking farewell. See 'The Lonesome Road.' 'The False
True-Lover,' 'Kitty Kline,' and 'High-Topped .Shoes,' in this
volume.

'By By, Aly Honey.' From the manuscript book of songs of Miss Lura
Wagoner of Vox, Allegiiany count.\, lint to Dr. Brown in 1936.

' Jackson (SFSEA 63-4) reprints a full text of nine stanzas from
The Sdcitil Har/^, which was compiled liy a Georgian and published in
Philadelphia in 1855. He notes tiiat in this volume the song is credited
to William C. Davis, l)ut lie discredits tbis attribution.

 

F O L K I- \ K 1 C 361

1 "Who will sh(i(.' your pretty littU' foot,
( )li, who will gU)\e ytmr hand.

Darling, who will kiss your sweet rosy cheek
While 1 am in a western land ?'

Chunts:

By hy, my honey, hy hy, I say,

By hy, my honey. 1 am gone.

I'll meet you at the station; I've done you no harm ;

I'll meet von at the station as the train rolls hy.

2 'Papa will shoe my pretty little feet,
Mama will glove my hands.

Darling sister will kiss my sweet rosy cheeks
When you are in a western land.'

3 'Look up and down that lonesome road,
Hang your head and cry.

You are the girl that slighted me ;
I will love you the day I die.'

4 'Had you not been going to marry me
You ought to have told me so.

For I would have been a married girl.
Yes. months and months ago.'

307

I Love Little \\'illie, I Do, AI.\mma

This little ditty is something- of a favorite in North Carolina, as
the number of texts in our collection shows. It is reported as folk
song also from Virginia ( F.SV 196-7). Tennessee (FSSH 282-3),
North Carolina (FS.SH 281-2. SHF 10- 1. lAFL xlv 43-4). Geor-
gia (SSSA 23). Texas (PFLST vi 227), and Arkansas (OFS iv
98-100), and is included in ABFS and in Miss Pound's syllabus.
Closely allied but not identical with it is T Love Somebody.' re-
ported' from Kentucky (ASb 140-4) and Tennessee (JAFL xxviii
183). The texts for the most part follow the same pattern, so tliat
it will not be necessary to give them all ;';; cxtoiso.

A

'Billy Boy.' Secured by Gertrude Allen (before she became Mrs.
Vaught) from a pupil of hers. Pansy Jordan, in the school at Oakboro.
Stanly county. The series in this is "I love little Willie." "He carried
my school books." "He gave me a ring," "VVc are going to git married,"
"He's gone for tlie license," and "We are already married."

B
I Love Little Willie.' This too is from Miss Allen, now from Alex-
ander county — sent in apparently about 1928-29.

 

362 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

1 I love little \\ illie, I do. dear ma,
I love little Willie, lia ha, ha ha,

I love little Willie but don't you tell papa.
For he won't like it. you know, dear ma.

2 He carried my school books, he did, dear ma,
He carried my school books, ha ha. ha ha.

He carried my school books but don't you tell papa.
For he won't like it. you know, dear ma.

3 He asked me to marry him. he did. dear ma.
He asked me to marry him, ha ha. ha ha.

He asked me to marry him but don't you tell papa,
For he won't like it. you know, dear ma.

4 He's gone for the license, he has, dear ma.
He's gone for the license, ha ha, ha ha,

He's gone for the license but don't you tell papa.
For he won't like it, you know, dear ma.

5 We're already married, we are, dear ma,
We're already married, ha ha, ha ha.

We're already married but don't you tell papa,
For he won't like it, you know, dear ma.

c
'Don't Tell Pa.' From the Misses Holeman. Durham. 1922. Four
stanzas. The series runs "I have a new sweetheart," "He told me he
loved me." "'I'm engaged to be married." "And now I am married" ;
and the refrain line at the end of tlie stanzas is "For you Know I can't
help it; now can I, Mamma?" up to the last stanza, which ends:

And now T am married, and you can tell Pa,

For you know lie can't help it, now can he, Mama?

D

'Don't Tell Pa.' From Miss Florence Ht)lton, Durliam, in 1922. The
series runs "I love little Willie." "He sent me a letter." 'And now we
are engaged," "At last we're married." and the final stanza runs :

You can come home to see us, ha. ha. ha, ha.
You can come to see us, you can, mama.
You can come to see us, but don't you bring pa.
'Cause he might grumble, you know. mama.

E

'Sweet Willie,' or 'Don't Tell Papa.' I'roni Carl C. Knox, Dnrliam,
student at Trinity College, 1922-24. The opening stanza only, with the
air.

V

'I Love Little Willie.' hroin Lucille Cheek, L'iiatham ctumty, in I9^3-
Opening stanza only.

 

!•■ () L K I, V K I C 363

G

No title. Contril)uted by Miss Annie Hanikn, but witboiit any indicati()i\
of time or place. Five stanzas, witli tlie series "I love little Willie,"
"He wrote me a letter," "He gave me an orange." and "We are going
to get married," and ending:

Voii must c(jnie to .see us, you must. mama.
Vou must come to see us, you must, mama,
You must come to see us, and you must bring pa,
Or he won't let }'oti. you know. mama.

H

"Don't Tell Pa.' I""roni the manuscript of Obadiah Johnson of Cross-
nore. Avery county. The series is "I love little Willie," "He gave me
a ring," "He ask me to marry." "He's gone for the license," "The
preacher is coming," "And now we are married" ; and it closes

and you can tell pa.
For he can't help it. you know, my ma.

 

'I've got a New Sweetheart.' Copied out l)y Dr. White from a manu-
script notebook lent to him in 1943 by Mrs. Harold (ilasscock of Durham,
who learned the songs in the book from her parents, and can sing most
of them. The text is fragmentary, and seems — in the first stanza at
least — to require a different rhythm from the others.

1 I've got a new sweetheart.
He told me he loved me.
He gave me a gold ring.

W e're going to be married.

2 I'm going to be married, ha ha, mama,

I'm going to be married, but don't you tell pa,
I'"or how can I help it. how can I. mama?

3 He gave me a gold ring, ho ho, mama.
He gave me a gold ring, ha ha, mama.

He gave me a gold ring, btit don't you tell i)a,
b^or how could I help it, how could I, mama?

308
Thk Lords of Crkation

This amusinf:: ([uij) about the female of the species is perhaps not
folk song strictly speaking, hut it has acquired something like
traditional status "in 'Virginia (FSV 333). Missouri ( BSM 432-3),
and North Carolina. For the complete text see the Missouri ver-
sion — where, however, the stanza form is slightly different.

'Obey.' From Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke county, prob-
ably in 1914 or 1915, with the note: "Part of an old song."

 

364 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

1 Ye lords of creation, men ye are called,
You think you rule the whole ;
You're much mistaken, after all,

For you're under woman's control,
. As ever since the world began
'T 'as always been the way.
For did not Adam, the very first man,
The very first woman obey ?
Obey, obey, obey, obey.
The very first woman obey ?

"Don't know the next verse, but the last two lines are"

2 As long as a woman's possessed of a tear
She will certainly have her own way.

3 Should there be so strange a wight
As not to be ruled by a tear,

Tho' much astonished by the sight
There's still no cause for fear.
For as long as a woman's possessed of a smile
Your power will vanish away.

4 For ever since the world began
'T 'as always been the way.

And we'll manage it so that the very last man

Shall the very last woman obey,

Obey, obey, obey, obey.

Shall the verv last woman obey !

 

309

Poor Married Man

The hardships of the liusband are not as frequent topics of folk
song as the woes of the wife, but they receive some attention —
most often, as here, in music-hall songs. Shearin in liis Syllabus
of Kentucky folk song mentions one something like this, but witli a
different verse-scheme. Otherwise it has not been found in regional
collections.

A

'Poor Married Man.' Secured from Alexander Tugman of Todd, Ashe
county, in 1922. With the tune.

1 You may talk about the joys of the sweet honey-moon ;
They are nice, I'll agree, while they last ;
But almost every case they're done too soon
And numbered with the things of the past.
The trials and the troubles are soon to begin ;

 

r () L K L V u 1 c 365

Although you uiay do what you cau,

You'll wish you were out of ihc clatter and the din

That follow the poor married man.

Clionis:

With the racket and the nniss and the trouhle and the

fuss.
His face all haggard and wan.
You can tell hy his clothes wherever he goes
That he is a poor married man.

2 He works all day and tries to be gay
And forget all his worry and care.

He whistles it down as he goes through town

Though his heart is full of despair.

His very last cent has already been spent.

And at home tiiere's IMollie and Dan

Both crying for shoes ; and it gives him the blues

To think he's a poor married man.

3 When he goes to bed with his poor tired head
He lies on the edge of the rail.

And the colic and the croup make him jumi) up and

whoop
Like a dog with a can to his tail.
He must run and walk, he must sing and rock.
He must get up some water and a fan.
He must bounce and leap and do without sleep
If he is a poor married man.

4 From his mother-in-law he gets nothing but jaw,
No matter how hard he may try.

To keep her tune she will fly onto him

x^nd all of his wishes defy.

He's a fool, he's a brute, and he never can suit.

Though he does the very best that he can ;

He'd better be dead, for it then could be said

He's at rest — he's a poor married man.

 

'Poor Married Man.' From Beulah Walton of Durliam, in i()23.
single stanza, made up from tlie chorus and hits of other stanzas.

It gives him the blues when they're crying for shoes,
Tho' he does the very best that he can.
You can tell by his clothes everywhere that he goes
That he is a poor married man.

 

366 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

310

The Black-Eyed Daisy

The second of the two stanzas given below has been reported as
Negro song from South CaroHna (JAFL xliv 424) and from Ala-
bama (ANFS 68). Mrs. Steely found the song in the Ebenezer
community in Wake county.

'The Black-Eyed Daisy." Reported by Jennie Belvin uf Durham some
time in 1920-21. With the tune.

1 Send for the fiddle and send for the bow.
Send for the black-eyed Daisy.

Don't reach here by the middle of the week.
It's almost run me crazy,
Almost run me crazy.

2 Who's been here since I been gone?
Send for the black-eyed Daisy.
Pretty little girl with the red dress on.
Send for the black-eyed Daisy,
Send for the I)lack-eyed Daisy.

 

311
Black-Eyed Susie

Randolph (OFS in 380) reports this from Arkansas as a play-
party song and gives references for its appearance elsewhere.

 

'Black-Eyed Susie.' Contributed in 191 5 or thereabouts by Thomas
Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, with the notation that it was
"popular a good many years ago. I recall hearing it picked and sung
by a young banjo picker nearly thirty years ago. Jew's-harp players
of this place also used to be strong on this tune. There were other
verses but I don't recall them."

1 Sweeter'n sugar and ten times sweeter.
Bless her soul, I could almost eat her.

Chorus:

Oh. my purly little black eyed Stisie
Oh. my purty little black eyed Susie

2 Fry a little meat and make a little gravy.
Hug my wife and kiss my baby.

 

'Black-Eyed Susy.' From Lini Hawkins <>i Mick's ("reek, McDowel
county. One stanza only.

 

F () I. K 1. V K 1 C 367

Some conic drunk and sonic come boozy,
Some come a-huggin' that black-eyed Susy ;
Some come drunk and some come boozy,
Dog my buttons if I don't kjve Susy!

312

A Housekkei'er's Tragedy

Although the theme of this song, the drab life of the overworked
housewife, is familiar, especially in that favorite song of the South-
ern mountains, "How hard is the fortune of all womankind," this
particular development of the theme has not been found elsewhere.
The nearest to it that I have found is "A woman's work is never
done,' reported from Berkshire in Sharp's Folk-Songs of England
IV 30-3 ; but this is less bitter and does not end in the woman's
death. It is not improbable that our North Carolina song is orig-
inally new s])aper verse by some local poet.

A

'A Housekeeper's Tragedy.' Sung t)y OI)adiali Johnson of Crossnore,
Avery county, July 14, 1940.

1 One day as I wandered I heard a complaining
And saw a poor woman, the picture of gloom.

She glared at the mud on her doorstep — 'twas raining —
And this was her wail as she wielded her ])room :

Chorus:

'Oh, life is toil and love is a trouble

And beauty will fade and riches will flee ;

And pleasures they dwindle and prices they double.

And nothing is what I would wish it to be.

2 'There's too much of worrinient goes to a bonnet.
There's too much of ironing goes to a shirt.

There's nothing that pays for the time you waste on it,
There's nothing that lasts us but trouble and dirt.

3 'In March it is mud. it is slush in December,
The midsummer breezes are loaded with dust,
In fall the leaves litter, in muggy September
The wallpaper rots and the candlesticks rust.

4 'There's worms in the cherries and slugs in the roses
And ants in the sugar and mice in the pies.

The rubbish of spiders no mortal supposes.
And ravaging roaches and damaging flies.

5 'It's sweeping at six and it's dusting at seven,
It's vittles at eight and it's dishes at nine,

X.C.F., Vol. III. (26)

 

368 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

It's potting and panning from ten to eleven ;

We scarce break our fast ere we plan how to dine.

6 'W ith grease, grime, and cobwebs from corner to center
Forever at war and forever alert.

No rest for a day, lest the enemy enter,

I spend my whole life in a struggle with dirt.

7 'Last night in my dreams I was stationed forever
On a far little isle in the midst of the sea.

My one cliance for escape was a ceaseless endeavor
To sweej) off the waves as they swept over me.

8 'Alas, 'twas no dream ! For again I behold it ;
I yield, I am helpless my fate to avert !'

She rolled down her sleeves and her apron she folded.
Then laid down and died and was buried in dirt.

B

'Oh, Life is a Toil !' Secured by Julian P. Boyd of Alliance, Pamlico
county, from Graham Wayne, one of his pupils in the school there.
Only the first two stanzas and the chorus. The second stanza runs :

There's too much washing that goes to a garment.
There's too much ironing that goes to a shirt.
There's nothing to pay for the time you waste on it.
There's nothing that lasts but trouble and dirt.

 

313
Kissing Song

A sequence or number sons^'. Randolpli ( OFS iii 89-91 ) reports
it from Missouri and mentions a recording^ of it in tlie Arcliive of
American Folk Song.

'Kissing Song.' Contributed by Professor J. T. C. Wright of the
Appalachian Training School at Boone in 1922. Each stanza is made
up of repetitions in the manner illustrated here in the first stanza. With
the tune.

1 I gave her kisses one, kisses one,
I gave her kisses one, kisses one.
I gave her kisses one

And she said 'twas well begun ;
So we kept kissing on. kissing on.

2 I gave her kisses two.

And she said that wduld not do.

3 I gave her kisses three.
And she .said it did agree.

 

FOLK L V K I C 369

4 I ,na\e her kisses lour,

And slie said she wanted more.

5 1 i;a\ e her kisses live.

And she said slu- was yet ahve.

6 I gave her kisses six.

And she said that they (hd mix.

7 1 ga\e her kisses seven.

And she said she was in heaven.

8 1 gave her kisses eight.
And she said it was not late.

9 I gave her kisses nine.

And she said she woukl he mine.

10 I gave her kisses ten.

And she said. 'I*)egin again."

Another sheet in the collection, i)robably from the same contriiiutor,
has the first stanza only, with the sexes reversed :

She gave me kisses one. kisses one,
She gave me kisses one, kisses one,
She gave me kisses one — the gun —
And we kept kissing on, kissing on.

314
My Mammy Don't Love Me

Of this song, incomplete in our collection, Perrow (JAFL xxviii
187) reports a four-line fragment from Mississippi. The first four
lines in our text are from Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga
county, prohably in 1915; the rest, with the music, is from Miss
Pearle Webb of Pineola, Avery county, in 1921 or thereabouts.
Smith notes that it has been "used by banjo pickers here for 12 or
15 years."

1 Mv mammy don't love me, she won't hnv me no shoes,
W on't give me no corn-licker, won't tell me no news.
1 love-a nohody. nohody loves me.

Always to drink licker, always to he free.

2 Come here, honey, t("ll me what I've done.
Come here, honev, tell me what I've done.

I've killed nohody, I've done no hanging crime,
I've killed nohody. I've done no hanging crime.

3 If you mistreat me you'll mistreat another man's wife,
If von mistreat me you'll mistreat another man's wife.

(incomplete)

 

370 NORTH CAROLINA F L K L R K

I Wondered and I Wondered

This quip was noted by John A. Lomax and pubHshed by him in
the Sorth Carolina Booklet vol. xi, No. i, pp. 27-9. I have not
found it elsewhere.

1 wondered and I wondered

All the days of my life,

Where yoti're goin', Mr. Mooney,

To get yourself a wife,

Where you're goin", where you're goin'

To get yourself a wife.

316
My Mammy Told Me

Tliis homely warning may be a part of some longer song, but in
our collection it always consists of four lines, with but slight vari-
ations. I have found it only in North Carolina. All of our texts
are from singing.

 

'My Mammy Told Me.' From Miss Fronde Kennedy, Durham ; not
dated, but secured some time in the period 1920-22.

My mammy told me long years ago,

'My son, don't marry no girl you know.

She'll spend all your money and she'll wear out your

clothes.
And what will become of you the Lord only knows.'

B

'My Mammy Told Me.' From the Misses Holeman, Durham, in 1922.

My mammy told me long years ago,
'Son, don't you marry no girl you know.
Spen' all your money, sell all your clothes ;
So don't you marry no girl you know.'

 

'My Mammy Told Me.' Reported l\v Mrs. Sutton from Lenoir, Cald-
well county, in 1927. She does not name licr informant.

Aly mammy told me long time ago,
'Son, don't you marry no gal you know.
Spend all yo' uKjney, sell all yo' clothes ;
Then what'U come o' you God almighty knows.'

 

FOLK 1. V K I C 371

On, Honey. W'iikrk You Been So Long?

Another fragment of the Hoating lyric of the folk. Gordon (FSA
79-80) gives a ten-stanza text of it as a hanjo picker's song;, appar-
ently from the Soutliern mountains, calling it a well-known song;
but I have not found it reported elsewhere as folk song.

'Song.' Contributed in 1923 Ijy Lucille Ciieck of Chatham county.

1 'Oh, honey, where yoti been so long ?
( )h, honey, where yoti been so long ?'

'1 been round the bend and I come back again.'
'Oh, honey, where yon been so long?'

2 'Oh, honey, where you been so long?
Oh, honey, where you been so long?'

'And it's when I return with a ten dollar bill
It's "Oh, honey, where yoti been so hjng?" '

318

Away Out On the Mountain

I have found no trace of this song elsewhere, but it bears its own
evidence of being folk song. In spirit and in rhythm it is like "The
Big Rock Candy Mountain,' but it bears no verbal resemblance to
that favorite of the hoboes. Is it a relic of the days of Davy
Crockett? Two words in it, "bile" in stanza 4 and "spontain" in
stanza 5, are (luite beyond my ken.

'Away Out On the Mountain.' From the John Burch Blaylock Col-
lection, made in Caswell and adjoining counties in the years 1927-32.

1 I ])acke(l my grip for a farewell trip ;

1 kissed Stisan Jane goodbye at the fountain.
'I'm going.' says I. 'to the land of the sky,
-Vwav otit on the mountain.

2 "Where the wild seed grows and the buffalo lows
And the sqtiirrels are so many you can't count 'em ;
Then I'll make love to some turtle dove,

Away out on the mountain.

3 'When the north wind blows and we are gonna ha\e snow
And the rain and hail comes bouncin',

I'll wrap myself in a grizzly bear's coat.
Away out on the mountain.

4 'Where the snakes are bile and the beavers are wild
And the beavers paddle on walking canes ;

Then I'll wrap my booze in a buffalo hide,
Away out on the mountain.

 

372 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

5 'I'm going where the whippoorwill sings me to sleep at
night
And the eagle roosts on the rocks of spontain ;
I'll feast on the meat and the honey so sweet
Awav out on the mountain.'

 

319

The Garden Gate

Tolnian (JAFL xxix 177) gives a fragment of this found in
Indiana and notes that it is printed in English County Songs, p. J2.
Kittredge adds tliat it is by W. Upton and occurs in numerous song-
books and stall prints. I have not found it reported by any Ameri-
can collector except Tolman (and perliaps Shearin, whose Syllabus,
p. 29, lists a similar title I. Our text, like Tolman's. is a fragment.

'Just Down to the Gate.' From the singing of Miss Pearle Webb of
Pineola, Avery county, in 1922.

Just down to the gate, dear mamma,

Just down to the garden gate.

The moon shines hright and such a nice night.

I'll just go down to the gate.

 

320

Susy Gal

This sounds as thougli it might be a play-party song, but it is
not so labeled. I liavc not found it elsewliere.

'Susy Gal.' Contrilnited by Beulah Walton of Durham in July 1923.

Susy licked the ladle

An' 'er dolly rocked the cradle.

(ioodhye, Susie gal,

I'm gone again.

I fell into the gtitter

And my heart began to flutter.

Goodbye. Susie gal.

I'm jjone asfain.

 

321
Joseph us and PjOhunkus

This song, familiar to collegians a generation or two ago and
I)erbaps to their successors of the present day, is represented by
three texts in our collection. Its origin I have not discovered.
Spaeth gives it in Read 'lim and ll'ccp 91-4: Davis (FSV 145)
reports it from X'irginia; Pcrrow (JAFL xxvi 125-6) reports'it

 

F I. K I, V R I c 373

as suns by Negroes in Mississippi with a stanza from 'Uncle Ned'
pretixecl to three stanzas of the sons proper. Similarly one of our
texts hesins with the opening stanza of Albert Gorton Green's
humorous poem 'Old Grimes is Dead." So does one from Missouri
(OFS 111 177-8) and one from Indiana (lll'd.P) 111 5).

A
'Old (h-inics Is Dead.' Ccnitrihutcd in lo-',^ liy Zilpali lM-isl)ic of Mc-
Ddwcll (.-miiity. With the tune.

1 ( )](1 Grimes is dead, that good old man;
We ne'er shall see him more.

He tised to wear a long-tailed coat
All buttoned down liefore.

2 And that old man he had two sons.
And these two sons were brothers.
Tobias was the name of one,
Josephtis was the other's.

3 And these two boys had a suit of clothes.
'Twas made one Easter Sunday.

Tobias wore it all the week,
Josephus all day Sunday.

4 And these two boys had an old grey mare,
And that grey mare was blind.

Tobias rode her on in front,
Josephus on behind.

5 And that old mare she threw them olT
And mashed them into jelly.
Tobias fell upon her back,
Josephus on her — back too.

B
No title. Secured by Julian P. Boyd at Alliance. Pamlico county, in
1927 from Duval Scott, one of the pupils in the school there.

1 There were two boys in our town,
The one was t'other's brother ;
Tobias was the name of one,

Ka junky was the other.

2 Now these two boys a-courting went
Whenever they thought right ;
Tobias in the daytime went.
Kajunky went at night.

3 Now these two boys both had a suit,
All made on Easter Monday ;

 

374 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Tobias wore it all the week,
Kajunky wore it Sunday.

4 Now these two boys both had a horse ;
.And that old horse was blind.

Tobias in the seat he set,
Kajunky rode behind.

5 Now these two boys both had a buggy.
And it didn't have any cushion ;
Tobias in the seat he set,

Kajunky went a-pushin'.

c

The tliird text is witliout indication of source or date and is therefore
not presented — though it is much fuller, running to nine stanzas and
describing the experiences of the two brothers (the second is called
Tychunker ) in drinking, courtship, and mountain climbing, ending :

Now these two boys are both dead and buried
(It is so sad to tell) ;
Tobias to the heavens went,
Tvchunker went down to hell.

 

322
Leather Breeches

The "leather breeches" appear in the words sung to a Kentucky
fiddler's dance tune (DD 134) and in a square-dance song in the
Middle West (Ford's Traditional Music of America 48).

'Leather Breeches.' From Miss Pearle Webb, Pineola, Avery county,
in 1922. With the tune.

1 I went down town

.\nd I wore my leather breeches.
1 couldn't see the people
For looking at the peaches.

2 I went down town

And I got a pound of butter ;

1 come home drunk

And I throwcd it in the gutter.

323
Old Aunt Katy

The refrain suggests that this is a play-party song, but I have
not found it recorded elsewhere. There are two copies in our col-
lection, one from Miss .\m\ Henderson of Worrv, Rin-ke county,

 

FOLK LYRIC 375

the other from Miss Carrie Stroupe of Lenoir. Caldwell county; but
the texts are identical.

1 ( )1(1 .\unl Kat}' was a good old sotil,
Patched my breeches right full of holes.

Refrain:

Up the ridge and down the ridge
And rtni old Katy home.

2 Old Aimt Katy was a good old soul,
Crossed the bridge and paid her toll.

3 ( )ld Aunt Katy dressed mighty fine,
Got a red dress just like mine.

324
Kindling Wood

A stanza about kindling wood is reported as part of a play-
party song in Michigan (JAFL xxxiii 127), but it bears little
resemblance to the North Carolina song. On one of our texts,
Ware's. Dr. White notes that it was popular as a college glee-club
song c' 1905-15. It has not been found in other collections of folk
song.

A

'My Name Is Dinah.' Contributed by Louise Lucas of White Oak,
Bladen county, in 1922.

My name is Dinah

From South Carolina,

And I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

Refrain :

Kindling wood, kindling wood,

I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

If you don't believe me come down to see me.

For I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

B

'My Name Is Dinah from South Carolina.' Reported in 1922 from
Albemarle. Stanly county, by R. D. Ware, student at Trinity College.

My name is Dinah,

From South Carolina,

And I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

And won't you buy some.

Oh won't you buy some,

For .

 

276 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

C
No title. Reported by Gertrude Allen (Mrs. \'auglit ) from Taylors-
ville, Alexander county.

Her name is Ina

And she's from South Ca'lina

And she's splitting kindling wood to get along,

To get along, to get along,

And she's splitting kindling wood to get along.

325

Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?

This jingle is probably known all over the country and for that
very reason has not been recorded by folklorists; at any rate, I
have found it reported only from Ontario (JAFL xxxi 55. 115).

'Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?' Reported by Louise Watkins from
Wayne county. ^Manuscript not dated.

'Mother, may I go out to swim?'
'Yes, my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a hickory limh,
And don't go near the water.'

326

River's Up and Still A-Rising

A medley of inconsequent couplets which I have not found else-
where.

'River's Up and Still A-Rising.' Contributed by Ella Smith of Yadkin
county. There is also in the Collection a recording of it from Mary
Barbour of Raeford, Holt county, but the editor has not seen her text.

1 River's up and still a-rising;

Just got hack from a negro hai)tizing.

Chorus:

Farewell, mourners, farewell, mdiu'iiers.
(joodhyc, i'se gwine to leave }'(»u hc'hind.

2 1 never seen the like since I've heen horn ;
Big cow jumped in the little cow's horn.

3 Had an old shirt, had no collar,

Looked like a hlack man sitting in de parlor.

4 Had an old shirt, had no sU'cve,

Looked like a whi])] rwill tr\ing U) sneeze.

::; 1 lad an old hal. had no hriuL

I ,ook(.'(l like a blue jav sitting' on a limb.

 

K L K I. ^• K I c 377

3-V

Tjtti.k I)R()WN Hands

Concci'Tiiiii;- this soiii;' the contrihutor says that she can find no
trace of it heyond the family tracHtion from which slie secured it.
Neither can the editor. But whatever its origin it lias clearly been
traditional soni;- in the Maury family. Miss Barnwell writes: "It
was sunt^ by Lucinda Maury to her s^randchildren — whether it was
a well known song of the day or a hand-me-down folk son<^ of that
part of the country 1 don't know. This, however, 1 do know: that
it was handed down from j^eneration to generation in our family,
and lias been ]ireserved for us because ai)])arently each .t;eneration
l(i\ed it."

'Little Brown Hands.' Contributed in 1937 by Miss Mildred (J. Barn-
well of Gastonia, Gaston county, from family tradition.

1 They dri\e the cows home from the pasttire
Down through the long shady lane

Where the ((tiail whistles lottd in the wheattield

All covered with ripening grain.

They search in the tall, waving grasses

Where the scarlet-lipped strawberry grows ;

They find the earliest snowdrops

x\nd first crimson bud of the rose.

2 They know where apples are reddest
And sweeter than Italy's wine.

They know where the fruit hangs the fullest
On the long-thorny blackberry vine.
They toss in the tall rocking treetops
Where oriole hemlock nests swing.
And at night-time are hushed in slumber
By the song that a fond mother sings :

3 ■( )h they wdio are brave are the strongest,
The humble and poor become great.

And from little brown-handed children
Shall gi-ow mighty rulers of state.
The pen of the author and statesman.
The noble and wise of the land.
The chisel, the sword, and the pallet
Are held in the little brown hand.'