Devil & the Farmer's Wife- Grover (ME) 1944 Wells
[From Evelyn Wells: The Ballad Tree. One of the rare versions that establishes the reason the devil is there asking to take a family member away--he's collecting a debt.
Fiddler Carrie B. Grover (born in 1879) and her parents came from Nova Scotia, and she had English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh forebears. Grover’s book A Heritage of Songs was circulated as an undated mimeographed manuscript privately printed by the Bethel Academy in Maine (1953), until it was formally published in 1973. Linscott wrote that, “One of the prolific singers was Mrs. Carrie B. Grover of Gorham, Maine. What she didn't sing, she played on a fiddle from a repertoire of more than 400 family songs."
R. Matteson 2013]
THE DEVIL AND THE FARMER'S WIFE (The Farmer's Curst Wife, Child 278) As sung by Mrs. Carrie Grover of Gorham, Maine, to E. K. Wells, May, 1944.
1. Oh the Devil he came to the farmer one day,
(Whistled phrase, etc.)
Saying, "You owe me a debt and I will ha' my pay."
To me right for-lor for-laddy I day.
2. It is not your children nor you that I crave,
(Whistled phrase, etc.)
But your old scolding wife and it's her I must have,
To me right for-lor for-laddy I day.
3. O take her, O take her with all my heart,
And I hope you and she will never part.
4. So the Devil he mounted her onto his back,
And like a bold pedlar went carrying his pack.
5. Nine little devils were hanging in chains,
She up with a poker and knocked out their brains.
6. She climbed up a stool for to make herself higher,
She threw round her left leg and knocked nine in the fire.
7. The little blue devils peeped over the wall,
"O take her back, dad, or she'll kill us all."
8. So the devil he mounted her onto his back,
And like a bold pedlar went carrying her back.