Butcher Boy - Bessie Atchley (AR) 1960 Parler B
[From Ozark Folksong Collection; Reel 387, Item 2. Collected by M.C. Parler. Transcribed by Bessie Atchley.
Listen: http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OzarkFolkSong/id/2629/rec/3
R. Matteson 2017]
"Butcher Boy." Sung by Bessie Atchley Green Forest, Arkansas July 7, 1960
In London city where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well:
He courted me my life away
And with me than 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 tells her things that he won't tell me.
I have to grieve I'll tell you why
Because she has more gold than I;
Gold will melt and silver will 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," You are acting queer.
What seems to trouble my daughter, dear?"
Oh, mother dear, you need not know
My pain and sorrow grief and woe,
Give me a chair and sit me down
With pen and ink to write words down.
Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
Upon my breast a snow white dove
To show this world, I've died for love.
And 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 from a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found;
"A silly girl I am you know
To hang myself for the butcher boy."
"Must I go bound while he goes free?
Must I love a boy who don't love me?
Alas! Alas! it will never be,
'Til oranges grow on apple trees.