Butcher Boy- Gladys McChristian (AR) 1958 Parler D
[From Ozark Folksong Collection; Reel 245, Item 6. Collected by Gladys McChristian for Mary C. Parler. Transcribed by Frances Majors
Listen: http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OzarkFolkSong/id/3564/rec/6
R. Matteson 2017]
Butcher Boy - Sung by Gladys McChristian of Huntsville, Arkansas July 16, 1958
In Jersey City there did dwell
The butcher's boy, I loved so well;
He courted me my heart away,
And then with me he would not stay.
There was a house in this very same town,
My love would go and sit right down,
And take a strange girl upon his knee
And tell her things that he wouldn't tell me.
And now I'll tell you the reason why,
She had more gold and silver than I;
Her gold nay melt, her silver fly,
And then she'll be as poor as I.
Her mother she did come in late,
Inquired, What ails my daughter Kate?
She went upstairs, the door she broke,
And found her hanging by a rope.
Oh, bother dear, I cannot tell,
The butcher's boy I loved so well;
He courted me my heart away,
And then with me he would not stay.
Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet;
Upon my breast place a snow-white dove,
To prove to the world I died in love.