3. The Twa Sisters

3. The Twa Sisters (Folk-Songs of the South- 1925; Footnotes moved to the end of each version.)

THE TWA SISTERS (Child, No. 10)

Three variants of this ballad have been found in West Virginia, two with the  title, "The Miller's Two Daughters," and one with no title (cf. Cox, xlv, 159). A tells a complete story in which Johnny Ray loves the younger sister and buys  her a gay gold ring and a beaver hat. The elder is jealous and pushes her sister  into the stream, in which she floats down to her father's dam and is drowned.  He drags her out and robs her. The father is hanged on the gallows and the  sister is burned at the stake. B is fragmentary and the story is somewhat confused. There are three or four daughters of an "old lady," in which detail it  agrees with C. The gift of the beaver hat is omitted. All three belong to the  group represented by Child R, S, U, and Y, as is shown in particular by the  refrain, the beaver hat, and the wicked miller. A freak of tradition in A makes  him the father of the two sisters, and this relationship is involved in the title  of B.

For American texts see Child, 1, 137 (Long Island, New York); Journal,  xvm, 130 (Barry; Rhode Island and Maine); xix, 233 (Belden; Missouri and  Kentucky) ; xxx, 287 (Missouri, Nebraska) ; Campbell and Sharp, No. 4 (North  Carolina, Virginia) ; Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin Collected in the Appalachian Mountains, 2d Series, p. 18 (same as Campbell and Sharp, No. 4 C, but  with stanzas from other variants). For references see Campbell and Sharp,  p. 323; Kittredge, Journal, xxx, 286. Add Bulletin, Nos. 6-8.

A. "The Miller's Two Daughters." Communicated by Miss Mabel Richards,  Fairmont, Marion County, October, 1915; obtained from Mrs. John Hood, who  learned it about forty-seven years ago. Printed by Cox, xliv, 428, 441.

1 The miller's two daughters brisk and gay,
Sing lie down, sing lie down;
The miller's two daughters brisk and gay,
The young one belonged to Johnny Ray,
And I'll be kind to my true love,
Because he 's kind to me.

2 Johnny bought the young one a gay gold ring,
The old one swore she had n't a thing.

3 Johnny bought the young one a beaver hat,
The old one swore she did n't like that.

4 The miller's two daughters walking along the stream,
The old one pushed the young one in.

5 "O dear sister, give me your hand,
And you shall have my house and land.

6 "O dear sister, give me your glove,
And you shall have my own true love."

7 Sometimes she sank and sometimes she swam,
And she was drowned in her father's dam.

8 The father drew her near the shore
And robbed her of her golden ore.

9 The father was hanged on the gallows so high,
And the sister was burned at the stake near by.

B. "The Miller's Two Daughters." Contributed by Mr. Wallie Barnett, Leon,  Mason County, 191 5. He learned it from his mother, who does not remember  where she got it.

1 There was an old woman who lived near the seashore,
Bow down;
There was an old lady who lived near the seashore,
Bow and bend to me;
There was an old lady who lived near the seashore,
She had some daughters three or four,
I'll be true to my love,
My love will be true to me.

2 "O sister, O sister, let us walk the seashore,
And watch the boats as they sail o'er."

3 The elder one pushed the younger one o'er,
As they were watching the boats sail o'er.

4 "O sister, O sister, please lend me your hand,
And I will bring you safe to dry land."

5 "I'll neither lend you my hand nor my glove,
For all that you want is my own true love."

6. She drifted down to the miller's dam,
The miller threw out his drifting hook
And brought this lady from the brook.

C. No local title. Communicated by Mr. S. M. Kelley, Suter, Pennsylvania,  1919; collected in West Virginia.

1 There lived an old lady in the North Country,
The bough has been to me;
There lived an old lady, in the North Country,
She had daughters one, two, three,
True to my love,
My love be true to me.

2 There came a young man a-courting there,
And he made choice of the youngest there.

3 He made her a present of a beaver hat,
The oldest thought a heap of that.

4 "O sister, O sister, give my hand,
And I will give you my house and land."

5 "I will not give you my hand,
But I will marry that young man."

6 The miller picked up his drop hook,
And then he fished her out of the brook.

7 The miller got her ring,
The miller pushed her back again.

8 The miller was hung at his mill gate
For drowning my sister Kate.