Prentice Boy- Marybird McAllister (VA) 1958 Foss
[From "Anglo-American Folksong Style" by Abrahams and Foss, 1968. The title, Knoxville Girl, is wrong and the authors should know better- I've changed it.
Many of McAllister's versions come from old stock and represent early American ballads that recently arrived from the Virginia colony. This is related to the Lexington tradition and at the end has the older form with the miller instead of the mother.
R. Matteson 2016]
Prentice Boy - sung by Marybird McAllister of Brown's Cove, VA in 1958, collected by Barry Foss.
1. Oh, when I was a 'prentice boy
About eighteen years of age,
My father bound me to a miller
'At I might learn the trade.
2. I fell in love with a North'un girl
With a black and a rovy eye,
I told her that I'd marry her
If she would not deny.
3. My father he persuaded me
To take her as my wife,
The devil he persuaded me
To take away her life.
4. I went on to her sister's house
'Bout eight o'clock that night,
And little did her sister think
'At I had any spite.
5. I asked her wouldn't she take a walk
Down through the flowers so gay,
That we might have some pridest (private)
And set the wedding day.
6. We hadn't walked so vary fur
A-looking 'round and 'round,
It's I drew out a stiffen-stick
I knocked her to the ground.
7. She fell upon her bending knees,
"Oh, mercy," did she cry;
Says, "Eddie dear, don't murder me
For I'm not fit to die."
8. I took her by her lily-white hand,
I slung her 'round and 'round,
I took her to the riverside
I plunged her in to drown.
9. I went on to my miller's house
'Bout ten o'clock in the night,
And little did this miller think
That I had been about.
10. He looked at me so very close
Saying, "Sir, what bloodied your clothes?"
The very reply I made to him
By bleeding at the nose.