Butcher Boy- Mrs. Schell (NC) 1933 Matteson
[From Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads- Maurice Matteson/ Mellinger Henry, 1936.
R. Matteson 2017]
THE BUTCHER BOY- sung by Mrs. Schell, Banner Elk, NC 1933
In yonder city where I did dwell
A butcher boy I loved so well;
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
There was a house in this same town--
My love would go and he would sit down,
He would take another girl upon his knee,
And tell her what he wouldn't tell me.
"Oh, mama, mama, can't you see,
How this boy has treated me?
His gold may scatter; his silver may fly;
I hope some day he be poor as I.
"Give me a cheer, and I will sit down-
A pen and ink to write it down.
I will write it down as you plainly see:
'I once loved a boy that didn't love me."'
After a while her father came home
Inquiring where his daughter had gone.
Upstairs he went; the door he broke;
He found her hanging by a rope.
He took his knife, he cut her down,
And on her breast these words he found:
"I will write it down so you can plainly see,
I once loved a boy that didn't love me.
"Go dig a grave both wide and deep
And a marble stone at my head and feet;
And on my breast put a little dove
To tell the world that I died for love."