Still Growing- Mollie Broghton (KY) 1918 Sharp
[From 1932 edition of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Karpeles notes follow,
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 72. Still Growing.
Texts with tunes:—Scots Musical Museum, iii, No. 377. Dick's Songs of Robert Burns, p. 317; cf. c Lady Mary Anne ' in The Centenary Burns, iii. 126. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 214 ; ii. 44, 95, 206 ; v. 190. Songs of the West, 2nd ed.,
No. 4. L. Broadwood's English Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 56. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 15 (also published in English Folk-Songs, Selected Edition, ii. 20, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 58). Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, ii. 212.
Still Growing- collected by Cecil Sharp as sung by Mrs. Mollie Broghton at Barbourville, Knox Co., Ky., on May 8, 1918. Hexatonic (no 6th).
1. Father, O father, I fear you have done wrong,
You have married me to a school boy, I fear he is too young.
O daughter, dear daughter, if you'll only prove so kind,
A lady you can be while he's growing.
2. I'll send him to the college for a year or two,
I'll send him to the college and see what he will do.
The only one, the one succeeds them all
Was my bonny boy, young and a-growing.
3. When I were riding through the Mascot Hall,
Four and twenty schoolboys a-playing bat and ball.
The only one, the one succeeds them all
Was my bonny boy, young and a-growing.
4. At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
At the age of seventeen she proved to him a son,
At the age of eighteen his grave was growing green;
My bonny boy is young and he's quit growing.