What Will You Say?- Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp B
[My title. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians by Sharp/Campbell I, 1917, with music. In Sharp's MS there is this note: "This is apparently the last-verse of Edward. It was the only one Mrs. Hensley ever heard her father George Washington Shelton sing and he sang it to one of his children who had put her foot into a puddle. Mrs. Shelton is still living 8 miles from Del Rio, Tennessee, in the 15th District on the West Prong of the Big Creek."
R. Matteson 2014]
B. What Will You Say?- Sung by Mrs. ROSIE HENSLEY at Carmen, N. C, Aug. 28, 1916. The MS. is in G; 1932 transposes to F.
Cf. the American variants of "Gypsy Davy" (200) and "Camptown Races." Hexatonic. Mode 3
1. O what will you say when your father comes back,
O what will you say to me?
I'll set my foot on yonder little boat,
I'll sail away over the sea,
I'll sail away over the sea.