The Greenwood Siding- Bigney (Nova Scotia) 1911
[From Ballads from Nova Scotia (Continued) by W. Roy Mackenzie; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 25, No. 96 (Apr. - Jun., 1912), pp. 182-187. Reprinted in Ballads and Sea Songs, 1928.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
THE GREENWOOD SIDING
The following version of "The Cruel Mother" (Child, No. 20) I also obtained in August, 1911, from the singing and recitation of Mrs. Bigney, of Pictou, Nova Scotia.
1. There was a lady came from York
Down alone in the lonely.[1]
She fell in love with her father's clerk
Down alone by the greenwood siding.
2. She loved him well, she loved him long,
Till at length this young maid with child she did prove.
3. She leaned her back against an oak,
When first it bowed, and then it broke.
4. She leaned herself against a thorn,
And then her two babes they were born.
5. She took her penknife, keen and sharp,
And she pierced it through their innocent hearts.
6. She dug a hole seven feet deep,
She threw them in and bid them sleep.
7. It's when this young maid was returning home
She saw two babes a-playing ball.
8. "O babes, O babes! if you were mine,
I would dress you up in silks so fine."
9. "O mother, mother! when we were thine,
You did not dress us in silks so fine.
10. "But you took your penknife, keen and sharp,
And you pierced it through our innocent hearts.
11. "You dug a hole seven feet deep,
You threw us in and bid us sleep."
12. "O babes, O babes! what shall I do
For the wicked crime I have done unto you?"
13. "O mother, O mother! it's us can tell,
For it's seven long years you shall ring a bell.
14. "And seven more like an owl in the woods,
And seven more like a whale in the sea.
15. "The rest of your time you shall be in hell,
And it's there you'll be fixed for eternity."
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1. Mrs. Palmer, whom I shall introduce presently, substituted here the slightly different refrain,
All a lee and a loney, O.
Mrs. Palmer is from Brule, Nova Scotia.