How Come That Blood On Your Shirt Sleeve?- Beddow (KY) 1956 Roberts
[This version from "In the Pines" by Roberts, is very similar to the version learned by Jean Ritchie from her sisters, Una and May, who learned it in the early 1900s at Hindman school, KY.
R. Matteson 2014]
How Come That Blood On Your Shirt Sleeve?- Martha Roberts Beddow; Knott Co., KY 1956
"How come that blood on your shirt sleeve,
Oh dear love, tell me?"
"It is the blood of that old gray mare
That plowed the field for me, me, me.
That plowed the field for me."
"It does look too pale for the old gray mare,
That ploughed the field for thee, thee, thee,
That ploughed the field for thee."
"How come that blood on your shirt sleeve,
Oh dear love, tell me?"
"It is the blood of my brother-in-law
That went away with me, me, me,
That went away with me."
"And what did you fall out about
Oh dear love, tell me?"
A little bit of *brush
That soon would've made a tree, tree, tree,
That soon would've made a tree."
"And what will you do now, my love,
Oh dear love, tell me?"
"I'll set my foot into yonder ship,
And sail across the sea, sea, sea,
And sail across the sea."
"And when will you come back my love,
Oh dear love, tell me?"
"When the sun sets yonder in a sycamore tree,
And that will never be, be, be,
And that will never be.
*originally "bresh"-- usually it's "just a little bush"