Four Maries- Leslie (NB) c1954 Creighton B
[My title. Fragment from Maritime Folk Songs; Creighton/Peacock, 1962 and also in Folk Songs from Southern New Brunswick; Creighton 1971.
R. Matteson 2015]
FOUR MARIES - sung by Mrs. Jeannie Leslie, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, formerly of Aberdeenshire. Sung to the same tune as Miss Letson's (see Creighton A).
1 Yestreen there were four Maries,
This night there will be but three,
There is Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton,
And Mary Carmichael and me.
2 I wish I could lie in oor ain kirkyard
Urneath the old dew tree
Where we put the gowens[1] and strung the rowans,
My brithers and sisters and me.
3 O, little did my mither think
When first she cradled me
That I would die so far from hame
Or hang on a gallows tree.
4 They'll tie-a napkin round my eyen
And they'll nae let me see to dee,
And they'll never let on to me fither and mither
But that I'm awa' ower the sea.
5 Yestreen there were four Maries,
This night there will be but three,
There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton
And Mary Carmichael and me.
1. Flowers like daisies that grow close down on the lawn.