Little Son Hugh- McGuire (TN-NC) 1964 Burton
[From Burton & Manning Folklore: Folksongs, I, 1967. Their notes follow. The stanzas lines are incorrectly written but I've left them. This version probably dates back to the late 1800s.
R. Matteson 2015]
LITTLE SON HUGH (Child 155)
Sung by Mrs. Audrey McGuire, September 1964. Most of her songs were learned when she was a child from her mother. Mrs. McGuire was born in Watauga County, North Carolina, in 1884 and lived there until moving to Sullivan County, Tennessee, in 1960.
Little Son Hugh- Sung by Mrs. Audrey McGuire, September 1964; Sullivan County, Tennessee.
1. As I walked out one morning soon,
As the drops of dew did fall,
And all the children in that school
Was out a-playing ball,
Ball, was out a-playing ball.
2. They cast it round to little son Hugh,
And in Dew's[1] garden it fell;
Dew [Hugh] run so ready for to pick it up,
But there stood old Miss Dew,
Dew, but there stood old Miss Dew.
3. She had a penknife in her heart [hand],
And she pierced it through his heart,
With a silver basin in the other hand
For to catch his heart blood in,
In, for to catch his heart blood in.
4. She wrapped him up in a reddy fold
That ta[2] used to wear of old,
And she threw him in that great deep well
Where none could hear his call,
Call, where none could hear his call.
5. His mother broke a birch rod in her hand,
Came walking down the street,
Saying, "If I could find my little son Hugh,
I avow I'd whip him home,
Home, I avow I'd whip him home."
6. She went till she came to Dew's gate,
And they were all asleep,
And there she spied that great deep well,
That was sixteen fathoms deep,
peep, that was sixteen fathoms deep.
7. "Are you in here, my little son Hugh,
Where I supposed you to be,
With a little penknife pierced through your heart,
And the heart blood run so free,
And the heart blood run Jo free?"
8. "Yes, Mother dear, I am in here
And have been so long a time,
With a little penknife pierced through my heart,
And the heart blood runs like wine,
Wine, and the heart blood runs like wine.
9. "Go lay my Bible at my head
And my prayer book at my feet,
And if any o' those children calls for me,
Pray tell them I'm asleep,
Sleep, pray tell them I'm asleep."
1. Jew's
2. they