Butcher Boy- LaRena Clark (ON) 1965 Fowke
[From: A Family Heritage: The Story and Songs of LaRena Clark by Edith Fowke, Jay Rahn, LaRena LeBarr Clark
cf. Mackenzie A, 1919.
R. Matteson 2017]
Butcher Boy- sung by LaRena Clark of Ontario, recorded c. 1965
1. In London city, where I did dwell,
Lived a butcher boy I loved full well.
He courted me my heart away,
And now with me he will not stay.
2. There is a house in this same town,
My love goes there he sets him down.
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells to her what he once told me.
3. I mind the time not long ago,
He followed me through frost and snow.
But now he's changed his mind again.
He'll pass the door and he won't come in.
4. Do any of you know the reason why?
Because she's got more gold than I.
But gold will melt and silver fly.
She'll see the day she's as poor as I.
5. She went upstairs and make her bed.
Not a word to her mother said.
Till by and by her mother came up,
Saying, "What's the matter, daughter dear?"
6. "Oh mother dear, I do not know
Such pain and sickness, sad grief and woe.
Bring me a chair and set it down.
With pen and ink till I write a song."
7. She wrote a letter, she wrote a song,
She wrote them broad, and she wrote them long.
Between each line she shed a tear,
Saying, "What shall I do for my Willie dear?"
8. Her father coming home late at night
He called for Katie, his heart's delight.
He ran upstairs, and the door he broke,
He found dead, hanging by a rope.
9. He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these lines he found:
Saying, "Oh what a foolish girl was I
To hang myself for a butcher boy.
10. "Go dig my grave dig it narrow and deep.
Place a marble stone at my head and feet.
And on my grave spread a turtle dove,
To show this world that I died of love."
11. In London city you may call and see,
Her grave's beneath a willow tree,
And o'er her breast there's a turtle dove,
To show this world she died for love."