That Blue-Eyed Girl- Fletch Rymer (NC) 1898 Brown
[From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 3 (1952), No. 286. Fly Around, version A. This composite learned by Bascom Lamar Lunsford from Rymer in 1898 has the "fly around" chorus and is a version more properly of that song. Notice one of the Brown editors compares it to "The Milkmaid," an entirely different song which is not "reminiscent" to this song- there is only one line in common and it's not found in this version!
R. Matteson 2017]
A. 'That Blue-Eyed Girl.' Sung by Fletch Rymer, a banjo-picker, in "The Beats" near the mouth of Newfound Creek in Buncombe county. This is reminiscent of the English milkmaid song 'Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?"
1. How old are you, my pretty little miss?
How old are you, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look:
'I'll be sixteen next Sunday.'
Chorus: It's fly around, my blue-eyed girl,
It's fly around, my daisy ;
It's fly around, my pretty little miss —
You've done run me crazy.
2 Will you marry me, my pretty little miss?
Will you marry me, my honey?
She looked at me with a smiling look :
'I'll marry you some Sunday.'
3 It's every day and Sunday too,
It seems so dark and hazy,
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
She's done run me crazy.
4 It's every day and Sunday too
I hang my head and cry ;
I'm thinking about my blue-eyed girl —
Oh, surely I will die !
5 If I had no horse at all,
I'd be found a-crawlin'
Up and down the rocky branch
Looking for my darlin'.