Three Little Babes- Oliver (TN- MA) 1931 Henry B
[My title. From: Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands; Collected & Edited By Mellinger Edward Henry, 1938. His notes follow.
Henry C is from John Oliver's wife and is fragmentary.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child, No. 79)
See Belden, No. 77; Campbell and Sharp, No. 19; Cox, No. 14; Davis, No. 22; Hudson, No. 12; McGill, p. 5; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10; Pound, Ballads, No. 7; Shearin and Combs, p. 9; Journal, XIII, 119 (Newell); XXIII, 429 (Belden); XXX, 305 (Kittredge); XXXII, 503 (Richardson); XXXIX, 96 (Hudson); Randolph, p. 180; Brown, p. 9.
B. [Three Little Babes] This version came from Mrs. Helen Tufts Bailie, 22 De Wolfe Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, who had it from John Oliver, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, April 10, 1931. Mr. Oliver writes that he had it from Mrs. M. J. Lawson-Lequire of Cade's Cove, the daughter of Daniel Brownlow Lawson, "a great uncle of mine" and "a great singer like all the Lawsons". Mr. Oliver adds: "He one time owned half the Cove and was justice of the peace thirty years."
1. There was a bride in Ireland;
She had but three little babes;
She sent them away to the northerland
To study our grammaree.
2. They had not been gone but a very short time,
Just about six months and a day,
Till death grew on the northerland
And swept those babes away.
3. Oh! are they any Lord in heaven
Or are they any King
That will send me a sight of my three little babes
Tonight or in the morning soon ?
4. One night about old Christmas Times,
When the nights was long and cool,
Oh! in stepped sailing with three little babes
Once more for her to see.
5. She dressed her beds all in the back room
With a golden cover in the middle.
"Dear mother, green grass grows at my head;
Cold turfs close at my feet."
6. She spread her table very fine;
She filled it up with cakes and wine:
"Come and eat, come and eat, my three little babes,
Come and eat and drink of mine."
7. "I want none of your cakes, dear mother,
Nor neither none of your wine,
For my Saviour calls me that I must go
And I must go and join."