The Cruel Mother- (SC-KY) Jones 1914
[Not a local title. Not from Michigan but reported from there. This fragment of Child 20 was published by B. L. Jones, in Kalamazoo Normal Record, May, 1914, P. 300. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
10. The Cruel Mother (No. 20). As the version I have is so short, I submit it in its entirety. It comes to me from South Carolina by way of Kentucky. Here it is:
I. My dear little children, if you were mine
AH alone and aloney-o,
I'd dress you up in silks so fine
Down by the greenwood sidey-o.
II. O, false mother, when we were thine,
All alone and aloney-o,
You dressed us not in silks so fine,
Down by the greenwood sidey-o.
III. You buried us under a marble slab,
All alone and aloney-o,
Think you these deeds will ne'er be known,
Down by the greenwood sidey-o?