Rose Mary in Time- Lux (OH) pre1939 Eddy B
[From Eddy, Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939. My title, this song goes back two generations, putting it back before 1900 but no earlier date can be ascertained. Cf. Henry's Illinois version from 1931. Eddy's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Miss Lux says of this song: "My father's mother sang the song to her children that she had learned when she herself was a child. My father still remembers it, though it does not seem to have a name."
B. [Rose Mary in Time] From Miss Mary Ellen Lux, Canton, Ohio.
1. As you go to yonder town,
Rose Mary in time,
Give my respects to that young lady
And tell her she is a true lover of mine."
He
2. "Go tell her to buy me a cambric shirt,
Rose Mary in time,
Without either seam or needle work,
And then she shall be a true lover of mine."
(Repeat the last two lines.)
She
3. "As you go down to Yonder town,
Rose Mary in time,
Give my respects to that young man,
And tell him he is a true lover of mine.
4. "Go tell him to buy me one acre of land,
Rose Mary in time,
Betwixt salt water and an acre of sand,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
5. "Go tell him to plow it with one big thorn,
Rose Mary in time,
Where never has blossomed since Adam was born,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
6. "Go tell him to plant it with one grain of wheat,
Rose Mary in time,
And cover it all over with one big sheet,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
Z. "Go tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Rose Mary in time,
And bind it all up with one humming-bird's feather,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
8. "Go tell him to thresh it against the wall,
Rose Mary in time,
And not for his life leave one grain fall,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
9. "Go tell him to take it to yonder mill,
Rose Mary in time,
And every grain one barrel to fill,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine.
10. "Go tell him that when he's through with his work,
Rose Mary in time,
To come to me for his cambric shirt,
And then he shall be a true lover of mine."