Butcher Boy- Cal Conklin (NY) 1947 Lutz C
[Ballad of the Butcher Boy in the Rampano Mountains by Anne Lutz, New York Folklore Quarterly - Volume 3, 1947.
Minor spelling and punctuation corrected. This is an older version with the "Must I Go bound/apple tree" ending.
R. Matteson 2017]
Most people seem to know the story as Maggie Gannon does; the butcher boy left the girl for another who has more money, Cal Conklin, itinerant handyman of the Tallman-Monsey-Laden-town section of Rockland County, wrote out the words of the song for me The following is his version:
In London City where I did dwell
A butcher boy I loved so well
He courted me my Life away,
And with me then he would not stay.
There is a strange house in this town
Where he goes up and sits right down
He takes another girl on his knee
And tell her thing he wouldn't tell me.
I have to grieve I tell you why
She has more gold and silver than I
Her gold will melt and silver fly
In time of need she'll be as poor as I.
I went up stairs to go to bed
And nothing to my mother said
But Mother said your acting queer
What is the trouble my daughter dear?
Oh Mother dear you need not know
The pain and sorrow grief and woe
Give me a chair and sit me down
With pen and ink to write words down.
O dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
Place upon my breast a snow white dove
To show to the world that I died for love.
When her father first came home
Where is my daughter where has she gone
He went up stairs and the door he broke
And found her hanging into a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her bosom these word he found
A silly girl am I you know
To hang my self for a butcher boy.
Must I be bound while he goes free
Must I love a boy that don't love me.
At last at last will never be
Till oranges grow on apple trees.