12C- House Carpenter's Wife- Hewitt (WV) 1924
[The entire opening stanzas are missing; the end is missing the "What hills" stanzas.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE HOUSE CARPENTER'S WIFE
(Jams Harris (The Daemon Lover), Child, No. 243)
Communicated by Miss Frances Sanders, Morgantown, Monongalia County, June, 1924. Obtained from Misses Emma and Effie Hewitt, who learned it from their mother. Tune noted by Miss Sanders.
1. She took her babe upon her knee,
And gave it kisses three,
Saying, "Stay at home you sweet little babe,
For your father's company."
2. She dressed herself in rich attire,
Most beautiful to behold,
And as she walked the streets along,
She shone like the glittering gold.
3. She had not been on board two days,
I'm sure it was not three,
Till this fair lady was seen to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
4. "Oh is it for my gold that you weep,
Or is it for my store?
Or is it for the house carpenter,
That you left on the other shore?"
5. "It's neither for your gold that I weep,
Nor is it for your store,
But it's all for my darling sweet little babe,
That I left on the other shore."
6. They had not been on board three weeks,
I'm sure it was not four,
Till under the deck there sprung a leak
And it sank for to rise no more.