There was a Lady- O'Quinn (VA) 1936 Scarborough
[Abbreviated title. From Scarborough, A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
(Child No. 79)
The touching ballad of the mother whose stubborn grief for her three lost children avails to bring them back from the dead, if only for a brief visit, is preserved in America, though in somewhat different form from that of the English or Scottish. In some of the old-country variants there are the sons, as in the version in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, where they are "three stalwart sons" whom she sends over the sea. Elsewhere there are three children, not specified as to sex. In the Virginia variant that I found, the children are spoken of as girls, or at least the feminine pronouns are used with reference to their speech. As Virginia mountaineers sing it, the children died while they were away at school. Drawn back to earth because of their mother's passionate grief, they come for a little while, but refuse to accept the food or drink she orders for them, as they refuse to sleep in the bed she prepares for them. They must away, at the wish of the Savior. Another motive seems to be involved, in that they, as all ghosts, must vanish by cockcrow or dawn. They reproach their mother for her grief, saying that her tears wet their winding sheet, or keep them from rest in the grave.
Elbert O'Quinn, of Stevens Branch, Buchanan County, Virginia, sang the song into the Dictaphone for me, and another copy of the ballad was given me by Ed Bostwick, also of Council, Virginia. These two were very similar to the version printed in a little local song book of the songs sung in that section, called The Sweet Bird Song Book, "A collection of the most beautiful and sweetest hymns, songs and ballads by John D. Miller." It is printed at Honaker, Virginia, the village fourteen miles fromthe Mission School at Council. It is interesting to find this ballad here, the only authentic traditional ballad in the collection for the others so called are sentimental songs, not strictly ballads, or are definitely American in origin. The "ballad " section includes such songs as "Home, Sweet Home"' "I Have No Mother Now," "Life's Railroad to Heaven," and, the like. Most of the book is devoted to hymns familiar to all churchgoers, though some interesting specimens of religious folk songs are here. The book is a small one, and brings together without comment some of the favorite religious songs of the neighborhood, so that this ballad strayed in because it was sung in that section, only the religious aspects of this ballad classified it above the others sung in the section for inclusion in this local book.
Elbert O'Quinn told me that this was to be sung to the Jake Barton tune. It appears that Jake Barton was an old settler in that mountain region, who was a notable singer.
THERE WAS A LADY AND A LADY WAS SHE
There was a lady and a lady was she,
And children she had three'
She sent them away to the northern country
To learn them grammary.
They hadn't been there but a very little while,
"Scarcely three months and a day,
Till death, sweet death, came a-hastening along
And stole those babes away.
There is a king in heaven
He wears a starry crown,
Pray send me down my three little babes
Tonight or tomorrow morn.
She looked out her window and she saw
Her three tittle babes a-coming,
Come running to their mother's home.
Go fix a table in. the little back room,
On it place bread and wine,
Come, eat and drink, my pretty little babes,
Come, eat and drink of mine.
Mamma, we don't want your bread,
Nor neither do we want wine,
For yonder stands our Savior dear.
Unto Him we must resign.
Go fix a bed in the little back room,
On it put clean washed sheets,
And over it put a golden spread,
For thy three babes in bed.
Take it off, take it off, said the next oldest one,
Take it off, take it off said she,
For yonder stands out Savior dear
unto Him we must resign.
Put a marble stone at out head,
And cold clay at out feet,
For tears sweet tears that our mother shed,
Hath wet our winding-sheet.
The ballad as given in The Sweet Bird Song Book makes a change to suit apparent logic, at the expense both of rhythm and meter and of the real meaning, in the substitution of the word "grammar" for the antique word "grammary," which doesn't mean the same thing at all. It is an instance of the dangers of attempting to polish or correct traditional folk stuff. The final stanza, with its directions digging the grave and putting a marble stone at the head, is tacked on here, as it is on to many a folk song in America, as providing a suitable ending. It is as common in American folk songs as is the rose-and-brier twist in the British.