Three Little Babes- N. Morris(VA) 1935 Wilkinson A
[My title. From Bronson TTCB- II, No. 25, 1962. As taken from Wilkinson's MS version A, another melody without text is designated A.
R. Matteson 2015]
[Three Little Babes] -Wilkinson MSS., 1935-36, p. 64(A). Sung by Nathaniel Melhorn Morris, Harriston, Va., October 16, 1935.
1. There was a woman lived near the North,
Her babies she had three.
She sent them far unto the North
To learn them grammaree.
2. They hadn't been gone but a very short time,
Not more than a month and a day.
Before cold death came hastening by
And stole her babes away.
3. "O", then she cried, "there's a King in Heaven,
And he shall wear a crown,
Pray send me home my three little babes
This night or in the morning soon."
4. As Christmas time was a-drawing nigh,
The nights both cold and dark,
Her little babes came snowing down
Right at their mother's door.
5. O then she spread her table wide,
And on it she spread beer and wine.
"Come eat, come drink, my three little babes,
Come eat, come drink of mine."
6. "O mother I don't want your bread,
Neither I don't want your wine,
For yonder stands my Sweet Saviour,
And to him I resign."
7. O then she maked up her bed,
' And on it she spread sheets so fine,
And over them a golden spread
As they may shelter warm.
8. "Waken up, waken up, said the oldest one,
The chickens they do crow.
And yonder stands my Sweet Saviour,
And to him I must go."
9. "Waken up, waken up, said the second one,
The chickens they do crow for day.
And yonder stands my Saviour, and
And I must haste away.
10. "Put a marble stone at my head, mother,
And put cold clay at my feet.
For the tears I shed for you dear mother,
Would wet this winding sheet."