The Two Sisters- through Mrs. Rachel Slocumb (NC) pre 1936 by Mrs. Charity Lovingood; Pub. Scarborough 1937
[From Scarborough, A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, 1937. See Sharp C, 1916 for a similar version, different ending.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
The Two Sisters- Mrs. Charity Lovingood (NC) pre1936 Scarborough; A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains 1937
1. There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
Bow down,
There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
The boughs they bent to me,
There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
And he had daughters one, two, three,
That will be true, true my love,
Love and my love will be true to me.
2 A young man came a-courting there,
And he took choice of the youngest there.
3 He gave this girl a beaver hat,
The oldest, she thought much of that.
4.He bought the youngest a gay gold ring,
But never the oldest, a single thing.
5 "O sister, O sister, let us walk out
To see the ships a-sailing about."
6 As they walked down the salty brim,
The oldest pushed the youngest in.
7 "O sister, O sister, lend me your hand,
And I will give you my house and land."
8 "I'll neither lend you my hand nor my glove,
But I will have your own true love."
9. O, down she sank and away she swam,
And into the miller's fish-pond she ran.
10 The miller came out with his fish hook
And fished the fair maid out of the brook.
11 He robbed her of her gay gold ring,
And into the brook he pushed her again.
12 The miller was hung at his mill gate
The oldest sister was burned at the stake.