The House Carpenter- King (SC) 1913 Smith B
[From: South Carolina Ballads by Reed Smith, 1928.
R. Matteson 2013]
The House Carpenter- Mrs. Iola Cooley King (Williamson, SC) 1913 Smith B
1. "It's we have met, and it's we have met,
And it's we have met," said he.
I have just returned from the salt water sea,
It was all for the love of thee,
It was all for the love of thee.
2. "I could have married the king's daughter dear,
She said she'd marry me;
But I refused great crowns of gold;
It was all for the love of thee,
It was all for the love of thee."
3. "If you had married the king's daughter dear,
I'm sure you had done wrong;
For I have married the house carpenter,
And I think him a neat little man,
And I think him a near little man."
4. "O won't you leave your house carpenter,
And go along with me?
I'll take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of sweet re-lee.',
5. "If I leave my house carpenter
And go along with thee,
O what have you got to maintain me on,
And keep me from slavery?"
6. "I have seven fine ships on the shore,
And seven more on the sea,
And a hundred and ten of the jolly, jolly men,
They are all for to wait on thee."
7. She called her babes all around her lap,
The kisses one, two, three;
"O stay with your papa dear,
And keep him company
Whilst I'm a-sailing on the sea."
8. She whirled herself all in her room,
And she dressed herself in scarlet-green.
She shone as bright as a morning star
As she walked the streets alone.
9. She had not been on sea but one or two weeks'
I'm sure it had not been three,
Till this fair damsel began to weep
And she wept most bitterly.
10. "Are you weeping for my gold or my silver?
Or are you weeping for my store?
Or are you weeping for your house carpenter,
The ones you'll never see no more? "
11. "I'm neither weeping for your gold or your silver,
Nor either I'm a-weeping for your store?
But I'm a-weeping for my sweet little babes,
The ones I'll never see no more."
12. "Cheer up, cheer up, and go along with me,
I'll take you where the grass grows green,
On the banks of sweet re-lee,
On the banks of sweet re-lee."
13. She had not been on sea but two or three weeks,
I'm sure it had not been four;
Till there sprang a leak in the bottom of the deck,
And it sank for to rise no more.
13. "What an awful thing, what an awful thing,
What an awful thing," says he;
"Is for to steal of a house carpenter's wife,
And now she's drownded in the sea."