Bluegrass Messengers

Quaker's Wooing- Miss Clark (NY) c.1939 Thompson

[From Harold W. Thompson (ed.) "Body, Boots & Britches," Dover, Bk (1962/1939), p.407 [1930s] as taken from Miss Clark. His notes follow.

R. Matteson 2017]

The popular old song about the Quaker's Wooing shows that the girls did. not accept just anyone who offered. I give a version recited by a lady whose parents were early settlers in Philadelphia, New York, a Quaker settlement:

He: Madam, thou art tall and slender,
Ho, ho, hi, ho, hum;
And I know thy heart is tender,
Ho, ho, hi, ho, hum!

She: Now I know you are a faker,
Tralala, lala, lala!
Besides, I never liked a Quaker,
Tralala, lala, lala !

He: Must I give up my religion?
Then I'll be a Presbyterian.

She: Cheer up, cheer up, loving brother!
If you can't catch one fish, catch another.

He: Here's a ring cost forty shilling,
And thou may'st wear it if thou art willing.

She: I want none of your rings or money;
I want a young man to call me honey.

He: Must I go without one token?
Must I go with my heart broken?

She: You go home and tell your mother
That you soon will find another.

He : Yes, my dear Miss, there's no doubt of it,
As good fish in the sea as ever caught out of it.