US & Canada Versions: 281. The Keach i the Creel
[US and Canada versions are rare and only four have been collected. The "Herbert Halpert" reference by Coffin (below) could be to Edwards version.
R. Matteson 2013]
CONTENTS:
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281. THE KREACH I THE CREEL
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 336.
Local Titles: The Kreach i' the Creel.
Story Types: None.
Discussion: The story of the ballad in Child is that of a young maid who captivates a clerk. To win her from her parents' strict watch, the hopeful lover has his brother build him a ladder, enters the locked house in a basket let down the chimney, and gets in bed with the daughter. Investigation by the father and mother are thwarted by the girl's telling her father that she is praying with a large book in her arms and by the mother's falling in the basket and being pulled up and down the flue by the clerk's brother.
Barry, Brit Bids Me, Maine text is a fragment, and it tells only of the bump the wife gets in the basket. The stanza follows Child D in the use of the word "lum" instead of "chimney". Herbert Halpert is now in possession of a more complete text.