Three Little Babes- J. Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
[My title. Single stanza with music from Bronson TTCB No. 21, 1962. Sharp MSS, 4683/3258. Sharp's notes fro mhis diary follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Sharp diary 1918 page 271. Wednesday 25 September 1918 - Burnsville:
Determined to try and run Mrs Julie Boone to earth. So we walked to Plum Branch only to find she had gone to Micaville. We went there to find she had gone a mile or so up another creek. We followed her, found her, brought her back to Micaville and got her to sing. She repaid us for the trouble we had spent by singing some really good songs.
[Three little Babes] - Sung by Julie Boone; Micaville, Yancey County, N.C., September 25, 1918.
I knew a widow, she lived abroad,
And childred [sic] she had three;
She sent them away to the North country
To learn their grammaree.
They hadn't been gone but a very short time,
About six months and a day,
Till death spread abroad all over the land
And swept those babes away.
She cries unto the King of Heaven
Who wears a starry crown
To send to me my three little babes
To-night or in the morning soon.
It just being about old Christmas time,
And the nights being long and very cold,
She dreamed she saw her three little babes,
Come eat and drink of mine.
I don't want none of your bread, one said,
I don't want none of your wine,
For yonder stands our Saviour dear,
Unto him we are bound.
She fixed the bed in the backside room,
And on it spread three clean sheets,
And one of them was a golden one,
Prepared for those babes to sleep.
Rise up, rise up, says the oldest girl,
About the first chicken crow,
For yonder stands our Saviour dear,
Unto him we must go.
Farewell, farewell, to Satan's race,
Farewell, farewell to all below.
Cold clods of clay lies at our feet,
Green grass growing over us.