Three Little Babes- Smith (NC) 1914 Brown D/ Davis EE
[From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Vol. 2, 1952 with supplementary music in Vol. 4. Their notes follow. Additional text from Davis MTBVa, 1960. Associated with the Brown Collection are the Abrams Collection and the I.G. Greer collection. Greer has nearly a dozen music sheets of this ballad - mostly they are rewrites of one or two versions. Greer and his wife sang a version recorded in 1929 (unissed) and 1941.
Because of his contributions to Davis in the 1930s all of Thomas Smith's contributions must be considered suspect. This version appears also in Davis- More Traditional Ballads of Virginia (bottom of page). This text since it was provided by the Smiths should be considered the correct text. This is similar to two other versions in the Brown collection.
R. Matteson 2015]
25. The Wife of Usher's Well (Child 79)
This admirable ballad has lasted better in America, for some reason, and especially in the South, than in the land of its birth. See BSM 55-6, and add to the references there given Florida (SFLQ VIII 152-3), Missouri (OFS I 122-4), Ohio (BSO 46-7), Indiana (BSI 97), and Michigan (BSSM 146). All American texts belong to one version, with a strong religious coloring. The North Carolina collection has nine texts, but not all need be given here.
D. 'Three Little Babes.' Sent in by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga County, in March 1914. Corresponds stanza by stanza and almost word for word with C. [Additional text from C provided along with music -vol. 4]. The basic melodic tendency is closely related to the Greer version (first version, cylinder 6-VII), 25E.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: abed (2,2,2,2).
1 There was a lady of beauty bright,
And children she had three.
But she sent them away to the North Countree
To learn their grammarie.
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EE. "Three Little Babes." Contributed by R. E. Lee Smith, of Palmyra. Sung by his brother, Thomas P. Smith, of Palmyra, Ya., and himself, "many others of Zionville, N. C." Fluvanna County. May 25, 1931.
1 There was a lady of beauty bright,
And children she had three,
But she sent them away to the North Countree
To learn their grammaree.
2 They hadn't been gone so very long,
Scarce three months and a day,
When there came a sickness over the land
And swept them all away.
3 And when she came this to know,
She wrung her hands full sore,
Saying, "Alas ! alas ! what shall I do,
I shall never see my babes any more.
4 "Isn't there a King in Heaven above
Who used to wear a crown?
I pray the Lord will me reward,
And send my three little babes down."
5 It was a-comin' near Christmas time,
The nights was long and cold,
When the three little babes come running down
To their clear mother's home.
6 She fixed the table for them then
And covered with cakes and wine,
Saying, "Come and eat, my little babes,
Come eat and drink of mine."
7 "We do not want your cakes, mamrnie,
We do [not?] want your wine"
For yonder stands our Saviour dear
And with him we will dine."
8 She fixed them in a bed in her best room,
All spread over with clean white sheets,
And over the top a golden one,
That they might soundly sleep.
9. "Take them off, take them off, mammie," the oldest cried,
"I hear the rooster crow,
Rise up, rise, 'tis coming day
And we must shortly go.
10. "Cold clods lie at our heads, mammie,
Green grass grows at our feet,
And the tears that come down your cheek,
They wet our winding sheets."