I Want You To Make Me A Cambric Shirt - Williams (IA) c1865 Williams
[From Bronson addenda.
R. Matteson 2014]
38.1. "I Want You to Make Me a Cambric Shirt" Sung by Mrs. John Williams (nee Violet Selena Hawkins) Iowa City, Iowa, January 1 and February 5, 1922 in 1865-70, in Penn Township, Johnson County, Iowa; recorded by Mrs. Flora Brennan. Communicated by Prof. Charles A. Williams. aM
(He)-"I want you to make me a cambric shirt
Green grows the male thyme,
Without any thread or fine-needle work,
And then you shall be a true lover of mine.'
(She)-"I want you to buy me an acre of land,
Green grows the male thyme,
Between the salt ocean and the sea's sand,
And then you shall be a true lover of mine.
-I want you to plow it with a muley sheep's horn,
Grecn grows. . .
And plant it all over with one grain of corn,
And then you shall be a true lover of mine'
-I want you to mow it with a strap of leather,
Green grows. . .
And tie it all up in a pea-fowl's feather,
And then you shall be . . ."
* I suspect the refrain 'Green grows the male thyme' is a corruption of something like "Green roscmary 'n thyme." Charles Williams note.]