The House Carpenter- Quigley (AR) 1958 Hunter REC
[From The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection online. I've done some minor editing.
R. Matteson 2013]
The House Carpenter- As sung by Lucy Quigley, Eureka Springs, Arkansas on September 2, 1958
Listen: http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0204
VERSE 1
Too late, too late, my own true love
Too late, too late, are you now,
I've lately married a house carpenter
An' a nice young man is he.
VERSE 2
O, won't you forsake your house carpenter
An' go along with me
I'll take you down where the green grass grows
On the banks of the Sweet Dundee.
VERSE 3
If I forsake my house carpenter
An' go along with you
What have you there to maintain us on
To keep us from slavery.
VERSE 4
I've got five ships all sailing on the sea
An' five more ready to sail,
And ninety nine of the brightest sailor boys
All there to wait upon thee.
VERSE 5
She laid her baby on the bed
An' kisses she give three
Saying, stay there, stay there, my dearest sweet babe
An' keep your Papa company.
VERSE 6
She dressed herself, in the finest of silk
An' away together they roamed
An' ever town that they drove through,
She shined like the glittering gold.
VERSE 7
She had not sailed upon the deep
More weeks I'm sure not three
Till this lady begin to weep an' mourn
And she wept most bitterly.
VERSE 8
O, is it for my gold you weep
Or is it for my fee?
Or is it for your house carpenter
An' your sweet little babe?
VERSE 9
It's neither for your gold I weep
Nor neither for your fee
It's all for the sake of my house carpenter
And my sweet little babe