The House Carpenter- Mason (NE) 1908 Pound
[From: American Ballads and Songs- Louise Pound, 1922.
R. Matteson 2013]
No. 17. The House Carpenter. Compare James Harris, or The Damon Lover, Child, No. 243. Text obtained in 1908 from S. J. Mason of Lincoln, Nebraska, who learned it as a boy at Aledo, Illinois.
17. THE HOUSE CARPENTER
"Well met, well met, my own true love,
Well met, well met," says he,
"I've just returned from the salt, salt sea,
And it's all for the sake of thee."
"I could have married a king's daughter fair,
And she fain would have married me,
But I refused her crowns of gold,
And it's all for the sake of thee."
"If you could have married a king's daughter fair,
I think 'twould have been your plan,
For I have marry-ed a house carpenter,
And I think him a nice young man."
"If you'll forsake your house carpenter,
And go along with me,
I'll take you where the grass grows green
On the banks of Italy."
She called her babe unto her knee,
And kisses gave it three,
Saying, "Stay at home, you pretty little babe,
Keep your father's company."
She dressed herself in scarlet red,
Most glorious to behold,
And as they sailed the ports all round,
She shone like the glittering gold.
They had not aboard the ship two weeks,
I'm sure it was not three,
When the fair lady began for to weep,
And she wept most bitterally.
"O, is it for my gold that you weep,
Or is it for my store,
Or is it for your house carpenter,
Whom you ne'er shall see no more?"
"It is not for your gold that I weep,
Nor neither for your store,
But I do mourn for the pretty little babe
That I left on the other shore."
They had not been on board three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
When this gallant ship she sprang a leak,
And she sank for to rise no more.
A curse, a curse to that young man,
And a curse to the seaman's life,
A-robbing of the house carpenter
And a-stealing away his wife!