Bluegrass Messengers

Quaker Wooing- Flora Gunnerson (MO) 1917 Barbour

[From Belden, Ballads and Songs, 1940. His notes follow,

R. Matteson 2017]

This of course is akin to Paper of Pins, for which see pp. 507-9. The Missouri text is close to that from Iowa given in ABS 229-4.

'Quaker wooing.' contributed in 1917 by Miss Frances Barbour as sung by Flora Gunnerson of St. Louis. 'She learned it from her mother, who sang it as a girl; doesn't know where she picked it up--somewhere near Paragould, Arkansas.'

'Maiden, I have come a-courting,
Hey hum hey hum hey he
Not for pleasure nor for sporting,
Hey hum hey hum hey he.'

'Then you may sit and stir the fire,
Ding turn a ding tum a dey dy oh
For I think that I'll retire,
Ding tum a ding tum a dey dy oh.'

'What care I for rings or money?
I want a man that'll call me honey.'

'Must I give up my religion,
And become a Presbyterian?'

'You go home and tell your daddy
That you did not find me ready.'

'Must I go without one token?
Must I go with my heart broken?'

'I've a ring and forty shilling,
Cheer up, cheer up, loving brother,

And you shall have them if you're willing.
'If you don't catch one fish, catch another.'