The Two Sisters/There Was an Old Woman Lived on the Sea-Shore- James Ashby (Missouri) 1874
[My title. From: Old-Country Ballads in Missouri, I by H. M. Belden; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 19, No. 74 (Jul. - Sep., 1906), pp. 231-240. Reprinted as version C in Ballads and Songs from the Missouri Folklore Society. Belden's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
(C) "There Was an Old Woman Lived on the Sea-Shore." From James Ashby's MS. ballad-book. No title is given. It was copied into the book, February 22, 1874. There seems to be no point here in preserving the peculiar orthography and verse-lining of Ashby's MS., except where the former throws light on the rime, and I have accordingly standardized the spelling, punctuation, and use of capitals.
There was an old woman lived on the sea-shore,
Bow down
There was an old woman lived on the sea-shore,
Bow was bent to me
There was an old woman lived on the sea-shore,
And daughters she had three or four,
I'll be true to my love if my love will be true to me.
The youngest one she caught her bow (beau),
Her bow he bought her a new beaver hat.
"O sister, O sister, come walk to the sea-shore
And see the ships as they sail o'er."
As they were walking all on the sea-brim
The oldest shoved the youngest [in].
First she sunk and then she swum,
She swam into the miller's mill-pond.
"O miller, O miller, yonder swims some swan,
Or else some true and loving one."
The miller threw out his great grab-hook
And brought this lady from the brook.
"O miller, O miller, I've gold rings ten,
If you'll take me to my mother again."
The miller he took the gold rings ten
And shoved her back in the brook again.
First she swam and then she sank
Into her eternal home.
The miller was hanged all on his mill-gate
For drownding of our sister Kate.