Three Little Babes- Toney (WV) 1916 Cox D
[From Folk-Songs of the South- John Harrington Cox, 1925. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
14. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL (Child, No. 79)
Seven variants have been recovered in West Virginia, under the titles: "A Moravian Song," "Lady Gay," "The Three Little Babes," and "A Lady Gay" (cf. Cox, xiv, 160). They all belong to the same version, and of the three versions printed by Child, they resemble most A. The best of the West Virginia copies are practically identical with the American text printed in Child V, 294. The main lines of the story are these: A lady who had three fair children sent them away to the North country to school, where, in short time, they died. She prays to the King in heaven to send them down to her, and about Christmas time they appear. She spreads a bountiful table for them, but they refuse to eat because they have food divine. She makes up a downy bed for them, with clean sheets and a golden spread, but they command her to take it off because it is vanity and sin. At the break of day they depart.
The prayer of the mother to have the children come back is not found in Child A. Cf. Child C 1. West Virginia texts A 9 and D 8 indicate the children come back to forbid obstinate grief, as the dead often do. This motive is not found in the Child versions. An ancient law compelled ghosts to return to their graves at the crowing of the cock. This law is observed in the Child versions,
but in the West Virginia variants they act in obedience to the will of their Savior. A curious combination of the two compelling forces is found in West Virginia B 8.
For references to English and American versions see Journal, xxx, 305. Add Campbell and Sharp, No. 19; Pound, No. 7; Wyman MS., No. 16 (Kentucky); Minish MS. (North Carolina); Bulletin, No. 3, p. 5; No. 9, p. 6.
D. "Three Little Babes." Communicated by Mr. Decker Toney, Queens Ridge, Wayne County, January 20, 1916; learned from his mother, who learned it from her mother, Hannah Moore, and she, from her mother, Hannah Ross, who was born in Virginia. Printed by Cox, xlv, ii.
1 There was a lady, a lady gay,
And children she had three;
She sent them away to a North country,
To learn their grammar.
2 They had not been there very long,
But scarcely three weeks and a day,
When death, cruel death, came hastily along,
And taken those babes away.
3 She prayed God both day and night,
And she prayed God at noon,
That he might send those three little babes,
That night or in the morning soon.
4 She was sitting in her back door,
Gazing up the road;
There she spied her three little babes,
Coming down the road.
5 Her heart leaped forth with loving joy,
A kiss and a prayer from her lips;
She sprang forth [with] great joy,
Her three little babes to meet.
6 She sprang to fold them in her arms,
The tears flowing fastly away:
"Stand back, stand back, dear mother,
Our Saviour we must obey."
7 "What news, what news, my dear little babes,
What news have you brought to me?
What news have you brought, my dear little babes,
From the foreign country?"
8 "Green grass grows at our head, dear mother,
Cold clay lays at our feet;
Every tear that rolls down your cheek,
Wets our winding sheet."
9 She made a bed, a white plush bed,
Spreaded over it a golden spread;
Around the spread a golden fringe,
So her three little babes might sleep.
10 "The table is sitting in the dining room,
Spreaded over with bread and wine;
Come eat, come drink, my three little babes,
Come eat, come drink of mine."
11 "We do not want your bread, dear mother,
Neither do we want your wine;
For yonder stands my Saviour dear,
To him we must resign.
12 "Farewell, farewell, dear mother,
He is calling us to our fold;
Yonder stands our Saviour;
To him we must go."