Butcher Boy- Mrs. Thompson (NS) 1928 Mackenzie B
[Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, W. Mackenzie, 1928. Appears to be Irish, has "rain and snow" stanza.
R. Matteson 2017]
"The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Mrs. Willard Thompson, Cape John, Pictou County, NS collected Mackenzie before 1928.
1 In Dublin city where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved him well.
He courted me for many a day,
He courted me my life away.
2 I remember the time not long ago
He would follow me through rain and snow.
But oh, he changed his mind since then;
He passes my door and he ne'er looks in.
3 There is a house all in this town -
And take a chair and set ye down -
And he'll take a strange girl on his knee,
And he'll tell to her what he ne'er told me.
4 But oh, I know the reason why,
Because she's got more gold than I;
But her gold will melt and her silver fly.
She'll see the day she's as poor as I.
5 She went upstairs to make her bed,
And never a word to her mother said.
Her mother following after, inquiring,
"What's the matter, my darling girl? "
6 "O mother dear, if you only knew!
My trials and troubles I cannot tell you,
But take you a chair and set ye down.
With pen and ink I'll write it down."
7 She wrote a letter, she wrote a song,
She wrote a letter and she wrote it long;
And every line she dropped a tear,
And every word cried, "Johnny dear!"
8 Her father coming home that night,
Inquiring for his heart's delight,
He ran upstairs and the door he poked,
He found her hanging to a rope.
9. He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom found these few lines:
"O wasn't I a foolish girl,
To hang myself for a butcher boy.
10. "O dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast place a turtle dove,
Let the wide world know that I died for love."