Sweet William & Fair Ellen- Pfoutz(PA) pre1940 KFQ
[From Keystone Folklore Quarterly - Volumes 1-3; 1957, pp.20-21, Collected by Shoemaker.
R. Matteson 2014]
SWEET WILLIAM AND FAIR ELLEN- Sung by Samuel H. Pfoutz (1855- 1940) of the Cameron clan.
Sweet William rode up to Fair Ellen's gate,
And he sounded on the ring.
No one no readier than she was
To arise and let him in.
He mounted her on a milk-white horse
And himself on an iron-gray;
He swung his bugle about his neck
And so went riding away.
He rode till he came in three miles of town,
He turned himself all around;
He looked and saw some seven horsemen
Come traveling over the ground.
"Get you down, get you down, Fair Ellen," he said,
"And take my steed in hand
Till I go back to yon little spring,
And I will fight them seven horsemen.
She stood till she saw her six brothers fall,
And her old father she loved so dear;
"Slack your arm, slack your arm, Sweet William," she said,
"For your licks they are wonderful severe."
"Are you offended at what I have done,
Or at what's been said before;
I wish myself in old England's land,
And you was in the valley so low."
She drew her handkerchief from her side,
And wiped Sweet William's wounds;
The blood kept rolling down his cheeks,
As red as any wine.
He mounted her on her milk-white horse
And himself on his iron-gray;
He swung his bugle around his neck,
And so went riding away.
He rode till he came to his mother's hall,
And sounded on the ring.
Says, "Sleeper, awake, dear Mother," he says,
"And arise and let me in."
As she were getting up, a-slipping on her clothes,
To let Sweet William in;
"Bind up my head, sweet sister," he said,
"For you never will bind it again."