Yonder School- Rowe (AR-OK) 1933 Moores A
[From the Moores, Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, 1964. The Moores notes follow. The last stanza is a form of the revenant ending found in Child B.
R. Matteson 2014]
14 The Twa Brothers
Most of the versions of this ancient Scottish ballad (Child, No. 49) were recorded in the first part of the nineteenth century. Jamieson's text (I, 59-65) is quite complete, "as it was taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Arrott." The ballad is well preserved in the United States and is widespread. Texts and references are in the following: Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 99-106; Belden, 33-34; Brewster, 55-57; Chappell, 17; Child, I,435-44; Cox, 33-35; Creighton and Senior, 25-26; Davis, A6-57; Eddy, 26-28; Hudson, 73-74; Iournal, Vol. XXVI, 361 (Pound), Vol. XXIX, 158 (Tolman), Vol. XXX, 294 (Kittredge), Vol. LII, 35 (Treat); Linscott, 278-80; McGill , 54; Morris, 254-57; Motherwell, I, 211-16; Pound , 45; Randolph , I, 76-80; Scarborough, Song Catcher, 166-67 ; and Sharp, I, 65-76.
A. "Yonder School," sung by Mrs. Foster Rowe of Jenks and recorded on January 2, 1933. Mrs. Rowe was born in Crawford County, Arkansas, and came to Oklahoma when she was seven years old.
"Dear brother, when you go home tonight,
My mother will ask for me;
Please tell her I'm going to yonder school,
To learn a lesson, a long lesson.
"Dear brother, when you go home tonight,
My father will ask for me;
Please tell him I'm laying in my cold, cold grave,
No more will he see of me, no more of me."
She wandered the chickens all off the roost,[1]
She wandered the birds all off their nests;
She wandered the mountains through and through,
But no more could she see of him, no more of him.
1. usually she "harped" or charmed" instead of "wandered."