The King's Daughter- Heaney- Newfoundland- 1951
[This variant was collected in 1951 from James Heaney of Stock Cove, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.206, by the National Museum of Canada (1965).
R. Matteson 2014]
The King's Daughter- James Heaney of Stock Cove, Newfoundland- 1951 (Collected by Kenneth Peacock)
Go steal some of your dadda's gold,
Some more of your mama's fees,
And the best pair of horses in your father's barn,
Go bring them unto me.
She stole some of her dadda's gold,
Some more of her mama's fees,
And the best pair of horses in her father's barn,
And brought them unto me.
Then she mounted a-Nellie Bride,
And me on the dapple gray;
We rode all along, all along, all along,
This live-long summer's day.
We rode till we came to the river's side,
"Alight, alight," said he,
Saying, "Six king's daughters I have a-drowned here,
And the seventh you're surely to be."
"Now six king's daughters you have drowned here
Why do you so by me?
You told me you'd take me all to the greenwood
And married we both would be.
"Oh turn away, false Willie," said she,,
"Oh turn your back on me."
Pretty Molly she caught him all into her arms,
As threw him into the deep sea.
"Lie there, lie there, false Willie," said she,
Lie there instead of me,
You told me you'd take me all to the greenwood,
And married we both would be."
She rode till she came to her own father's door
Three long hours before day;
The parrot was in the next room nigh,
And to lovely Molly did say:
"Where have you been, lovely Molly," said she,
"This love-long summer's day?"
Oh hush, oh hush, pretty Polly," said she,
Don't tell no tales on me.
"Though your cage be made of the glittering gold,
And your doors of the ivory,
I'll wring your neck like a common crow,
If you tell any tales on me."
Her father was in the next room nigh,
To hear what the parrot did say.
"What is the matter with you pretty parrot
You're chattering long before day?"
"The cats they are at my cage's door,
They're trying to make war against me,
I have been calling to lovely Molly
To drive these beasts away."