Three Sweet Babes- Mace (VA) 1935 Wilkinson B
[My title. From Bronson TTCB- II, No. 27, 1962. As taken from Wilkinson's MS version B, another melody without text is designated B. Taken from the Brown's Cove area, well-known for ballad singing- see Barry Foss. Cf. Wilkinson A.
R. Matteson 2015]
[Three Sweet Babes] - Wilkinson MSS., 1935-36, p. 66(8). Sung by R. H. Mace, Grottoes, Va., October 30, 1935.
1. Once there's a woman lived near the North,
And children 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;
Until death, cold death, came hastening by,
And stole her babes away.
3 Oh then! she cried, there's a King in Heaven,
And they shall wear a crown.
Pray send them back, my three sweet babes,
Tonight or in the morning soon.
4. Christmas time was drawing near,
The night being dark and cold.
Her three sweet babes came snowing down
Right at their mother's door.
5. She set a table in the back room hall,
On it were bread and wine.
Come eat, come drink, my three sweet babes,
Come eat and drink of wine.
6. Oh I don't want your bread dear mother,
Nor neither do I want your wine,
For yonder stands my sweet Savior
And to him I resign.
7. She set a bed in the back room hall,
On it put sheets so fine.
On top of that put a golden spread
That they might shelter warm.
8. Waken up, waken up; says the oldest one,
The chickens they do crow;
And yonder stands my sweet Savior
And to him I must go.
9. Waken up, waken up; says the middle aged one,
The chickens crow for day.
And yonder stands my sweet Savior
And I must haste away.
10. Waken up, waken up; says the youngest one,
The chickens they do crow.
And yonder stands my sweet Savior
And to him I must go.