Waxweed Girl- David Pricket (AR) 1958 Hunter A
[From Missouri State; Max Hunter Folk Song Collection Cat. #0008 (MFH #670). Minor editing.
Listen: https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0008
R. Matteson 2016]
The Waxweed Girl- As sung by Mr. David Pricket, Clifty, Arkansas on January 19, 1958. Mr. David Pricket learned this song from his father. His sister Lucy helped him sing.
VERSE 1
It was in the town of Nero
Where I did live and dwell
It was in the town of Waxweed
I owned a floury mill.
VERSE 2
I fell in love with a Waxweed girl
With dark and rolling eyes
I asked her to marry me
T'was at her own surprise.
VERSE 3
Down at her sister's house
Th wedding to provide
I asked her to walk with me
Down by th river-side
VERSE 4
We walked the hills an' valleys
Till we came to level ground
Then picking up the fence stake
I knocked the fair maid down.
VERSE 5
Her falling to her bended knees
Have mercy, she did cry
O, Johnny dear, don't murder me
I'm not prepared to die
VERSE 6
I took no heed to what was said
But I only kept on more
Till all the ground fer yards around
Was covered with bloody gore[1].
VERSE 7
I took her by her curly locks
And drug her on the ground
I threw 'er in the river
That flowed to Waxweed town
VERSE 8
It was ten o'clock an' after
When I got home that night
My Mother setting there
Got up in terrible fright.
VERSE 9
O, son, O son, what have ya done
To bloody your hands and clothes?
The only answer I could give,
Was bleeding at the nose
VERSE 10
I called for a candle
To light me off to bed
The next for a napkin
To bind around my head
VERSE 11
I turned over and over
No comfort could I find
Those flames of hell shown 'round me
An' the Waxweed girl behind
VERSE 12
It was early next morning
The Waxweed girl was found
A-floating down the river
That flowed to Waxweed town
VERSE 13
They took me on suspicion
They put me in the jail
No one t' go my security
No on t' go my bail
VERSE 14
Her sister swore my life away
She swore without a doubt
She swore, that I's the very man
That took her sister out
VERSE 15
Come all you young people
Warning take from me
Don't murder your true lover
Fer no cruelty
VERSE 16
For if you do they'll bother you
Until the day you die
And finally, they'll hang you
Upon a gallows high
1. originally "morr"