Two Born Brothers- Housely (PA-OH) pre-1860; published in 1939 Eddy A
[From Ballads and Songs From Ohio; Eddy, 1939. The date of this version is pre-1860, which is based on the information that the informant learned this about 80 years before it was submitted to Eddy (by 1939). Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
9. THE TWA BROTHERS
(Child, No. 49)
Rev. Edwin L. Housley and his wife took down this song from the singing of Mr. Housley's mother when she was 91 years old. The song is as she learned it in her girlhood home in Lancaster Pa.
A. TWO BORN BROTHERS From Mrs. Anna E. Housley, Canton, Ohio.
1. Once there were two brothers,
Who loved each other well,
On Monday morning going to school,
On Saturday coming home.
2. "Oh, brother, will you wrestle,
Will you wrestle up and down,
Or will you go to the green shade,
Or to the milk-white stone?"
3. "I will neither go to the green shade tree,
Nor to the milk-white stone,
But here upon this pretty green grass
I will wrestle you up and down."
4. They wrestled up and they wrestled down,
They wrestled up and down,
Till out of William's pocket a pen-knife flew
Which gave John a deathly wound.
5. "Take off, take off my Holland shirt,
And tear it from gore to gore,
And wrap it around my bleeding wound;
Perhaps it will bleed no more."
6. He took off, took off his Holland shirt,
And tore it from gore to gore,
And wrapped it around his bleeding wound,
But still it bled more and more.
7. "Oh, what shall I tell to your mother
When she asks for her son John?"
"Tell her I've gone to a distant land
Where many a poor man's gone."
8. "And what shall I tell to your father
When he asks for his son John?"
"Tell him I've gone to a distant school
My books are there to bring home."
9. "And what shall I tell to your true love
When she asks for her true lover John?"
"Tell her I'm dead and buried under sod;
In West Chester lies my bones."
10. She wept, she wept from door to door,
She wept from door to door,
Until she had wept this young man out of his grave;
No rest could she find no more.
11. "Go home, go home, you lovely maid,
And weep and weep no more,
For as surely as you do, you surely will rue
Until the day you die."