Barbara Ellen- (KY) 1931 Jean Thomas A
[No informant named. From Devil's Ditties, by Jean Thomas; 1931. This version is missing the opening stanza(s) and a stanza after 4.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barbara Ellen
So this young man he were taken sick,
He lay in a low condition;
All he said both night and day
'Was t' send for Barbara Ellen."
So they sent a servant to the town
Where Barbara were a-dwellin'.
"Arise, arise you up and go
If your name be Barbara Ellen."
So slowly, slowly she arose
And slowly she drew nigh him;
And all she said when there she came,
"Young man, I think you are a-dying."
"Oh yes, oh yes, my pretty little miss,
I lay in a low condition;
One sweet kiss would comfort me,
Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen."
Oh, he turned his pale face to the wall
His back be all unto her;
"Adieu, adieu to all pretty maids
But woe to Barbara Ellen."
As she walked out through an open field,
She heard a death bell ringing;
The more it ringed it seemed for to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen."
Oh, she looked and she looked to the west,
She spied a corpse a-coming;
"Lie down, lie down those ice cold corpse
That I may gaze upon it."
"Oh mother, Oh mother, go make my shroud,
Go make it long and narrow;
Johnny Green has died for love
And I may die for sorry."
So they buried her in the lower church yard,
They buried him in the square;
And out of hers grew a red, red rose
And out of his grew a brier.
So there they grew to the church steeple tops
And there they could grow no higher;
There they tied in a true lovers' knot
The rose and the green brier.