Three Little Babes- Robertson (OH-MO) 1939 Eddy
[My title. From Eddy; Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child, No. 79)
Mrs. Robertson's home was formerly in the southwest corner of Missouri, and it was there that she learned many of her old songs from the singing of a hired man named Irvin Hunt. This man knew so many, she says, that-he could have sung all night without repeating. He used considerable dramatic skill, it seems, for he could sing so that his audience laughed or cried at his pleasure.
[Three Little Babes] From Mrs. James Robertson, Perrysville, Ohio.
1. There was a lady in our town,
And children she had three,
She sent them away to a North countree,
To learn their grammaree,
To learn their grammaree.
2. They hadn't been gone but a very short time,
Just three weeks to a day,
Till death it spread all over the land
And swept her babes away,
And swept her babes away.
3. 'Twas all on a Christmas night,
And it was dark and cold;
Her three little babes came running home
Down to their mother's home,
Down to their mother's home.
4. She fixed her table all in the side room,
And spread with bread and wine,
Saying, "Come along, my three little babes,
And eat and drink of mine,
And eat and drink of mine."
5. She fixed her bed all in the back room,
And spread with a clean sheet,
And over the top spread a golden cloth
The sweeter that they might sleep,
The sweeter that they might sleep.
6. "Rise you up, rise you up," says the older one,
"For it is almost day,
And yonder stands our sweet Saviour,
And him we must obey,
And him we must obey.
7. "Cold clods of clay at our head,
Green grasses at our feet,
And the tears that our dear mother has shed
Would wet our winding sheet
Would wet our winding sheet."