26 174-175 (Texas, from Ireland). B. L. Jones (p. 5) records two copies from Michigan, one beginning,

“Where are you going?" "I'm going to Lynn.” 1

Let every rose grow merry in time.

See also Pound, pp. 10-11. Barry (in JAFL 18 : 214) called attention to the fact that the ballad was published in this country about 1844 in "Songs for the Million," and reprinted the text ("Love's Impossibility"). Later he found a remarkably full and interesting text in a broadside in the Harris collection (Brown University), “Love Letter and Answer," "Hunts and Shaw, N. E. corner of Faneuil Hall Market, Boston."2 This has twelve stanzas, and includes both Lynn and Cape Ann.3

A good version may be found in Walter Rye, "Songs, Stories, and Sayings of Norfolk" (1897), pp. 7-8. The ballad is well known in England as "Scarborough (Whittingham) Fair" (Child, 2: 495-496; 4: 440; 5: 206; Baring-Gould, "A Book of English Nursery Songs and Rhymes," No. 1, pp. 3-4; Sharp, “One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 74, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii, 167–169, with references). Compare Greig, "Folk-Song of the North-East," C; Joyce, "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs," No. 117, pp. 59-60.

[Strawberry Lane.]

Communicated in 1914 by Mr. E. Russell Davis, as remembered by his mother and himself from the singing of his grandfather, Mr. William Henry Banks (born 1834), a vessel-owner of Maine.

As I was a-walk-ing up Strawberry Lane,.. Every

pretty, fair maid, Who said she would be a true-lover of mine.

1 Compare Child's F (Kinloch's MSS.): "Did you ever travel twixt Berwick and Lyne?" (1: 17).

2 Hunts and Shaw were at this address during a part of 1836 and of 1837 only. The man asks, "O where are you bound, are you bound to Lynn?" The girl's question is, "O where are you bound, are you bound to Cape Ann?"

The man goes on to make several more conditions. Finally the girl turns on him thus:

6. "You'll have for to plough it with a deer's horn, -
Every rose grows merry and fine,

And plant it all over with one grain of corn,
Before you can be a true-lover of mine.

7. "You'll have for to thrash it in an eggshell,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
And bring it to market in a thimble,2

Before you can be a true-lover of mine."

THE FAUSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD (Child, No. 3).

The following delightful version was secured by Belden in 1916. It was sent to him by Miss J. D. Johns of St. Charles, Mo., who learned it from her uncle, Mr. Douglas Voss Martin. He learned it when a boy in Virginia from his grandmother, Mrs. Eleanor Voss, who was a Scotchwoman. Mr. Cecil J. Sharp has recently found the ballad in the South, but his version is very different from that of Miss Johns. Barry gives a fragment of one stanza from Maine (Irish in source) in JAFL 24: 344.

1 Or "said she would be."

2 Or, "And take it to market where man never dwelled."

The False Knight.

'Where are you going?" said the false knight, false knight,
"Where are you going?" said the false knight Munro.
"Well," said the little boy, "I'm going to school,

But I'll stand to my book al-so."

2. "What you got in your basket?" said the false knight, false knight, "What you got in your basket?" said the false knight Munro. "Well," said the little boy, "my breakfast and my dinner,

But I'll stand to my book al-so."

3. "Give my dog some," said the false knight, false knight,
"Give my dog some," said the false knight Munro.
"Well," said the little boy, "I won't give him none,

But I'll stand to my book al-so."

4. "Then I'll pitch you in the well," said the false knight, false knight, "Then I'll pitch you in the well," said the false knight Munro. "Well," said the little boy, "I'll pitch you in first,

But I'll stand to my book al-so."

And he pitched him in the well and went on to school.

LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT (Child, No. 4).

For a list of American variants, see Tolman and Kittredge in JAFL 29 156-157. Cox prints a West Virginia version in the "West Virginia School Journal and Educator" (44: 269), and reports others (45 159; JAFL 29: 400). B. L. Jones reports three variants from Michigan and prints one stanza ("Folk-Lore in Michigan," p. 5). C. Alphonso Smith reports the ballad from Tennessee ("Summer School News," I: I, No. 12, July 31, 1914, Summer School of the South). See also Child MSS., xxi, 4, articles 4 and 6 (Harvard College Library); Reed Smith (JAFL 28: 200-202); F. C. Brown, p. 9; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 2, p. 3; No. 3, p. 2; No. 4, p. 4. Miss Loraine Wyman and Mr. Brockway have printed a version from Kentucky ("Six King's Daughters," with music) in "Lonesome Tunes," 1: 82-87. Professor Belden has collected nine variants.1

THE TWA SISTERS (Child, No. 10).

The first scholar to publish an American text of this ballad was Child, who printed, in 1883, as version U (1: 137), a fragment of four stanzas (with burden), communicated by Mr. W. W. Newell from the recitation of an old woman who had learned the song in Long Island, N.Y. This fragment was a near relative of Child's R,

1 On recent English tradition, see Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 11, pp. xxi-xxii, 29-31 ("The Outlandish Knight").

a version current in England, and of his S, a Scottish fragment from Kinloch's MS. In 1884 Child printed (as Y) a Kentish version (from Percy's papers), which was sent to Percy in 1770 and 1775 (1 495-496); and this is also near akin to the American text, which thus appears to be of respectable antiquity. Since Child's death, better copies of the American version have been collected. See JAFL 18: 130-132; 19: 233-235; 28: 200-202; Belden, No. 2; Shearin and Coombs, p. 7; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Pound, p. 11; Virginia FolkLore Society, Bulletin, No. 2, p. 3; No. 3, p. 2; No. 4, p. 5; No. 5, p. 5; Cox, 44: 428, 441-442; 45: 159 (cf. JAFL 29: 400). Belden has collected five variants, in all of which the miller is hanged for "drowning Sister Kate." There is an American text in Child's MSS., xxi, 10, article 5, which ends as follows:

The miller he was burnt in flame,

The eldest sister fared the same.

I.

The West Countree.

Communicated by Professor Belden, 1916, as written down from memory by Mrs. Eva Warner Case, with the assistance of her mother and grandmother; Harrison County, Missouri.

There was an old man lived in the West (Bow down), There was an old man lived

in the West (The bow's a-bend o'er me), There was an old man lived

in

the West, He had two daugh- ters of the best (I'll be

There was an old man lived in the West,

The bow's a-bend o'er me,

There was an old man lived in the West,

He had two daughters of the best.

I'll be true to my love, if my love will be true to me.

2. The squire he courted the older first,
But still he loved the younger best.

3. The first that he bought her was a beaver hat.
The older thought right smart of that.

4. The next that he bought her was a gay gold ring.
He never bought the older a thing.

5. "Sister, O Sister! let's walk out,

And see the ships all sailing about."

6. They walked all along the salt-sea brim,
The older pushed the younger in.

7. "Sister, O Sister! lend me your hand,
And then I'll gain the promised land."

8. "It's neither will I lend you my hand nor my glove,
And then I'll gain your own true love."

9. Sometimes she'd sink, sometimes she'd swim,
Sometimes she'd grasp a broken limb.

10. Down she sank and off she swam,
She swam into the miller's dam.

II. The miller went fishing in his own milldam,
And he fished this lady out of the stream.

12. Off her finger he pulled three rings,

And dashed her in the brook again.

13. The miller was hanged on his own mill-gate
For the drowning of my sister Kate.

II.

There was an Old Woman Lived on the Seashore.

Communicated by Professor Louise Pound, 1916. "In a manuscript collection of songs in the possession of Mrs. Mary F. Lindsey, of Hebron, Neb. Dated 1870." It has obviously been used as a dance-song.

I. There was an old woman lived on the seashore,

Bow down,

There was an old woman lived on the seashore,

Balance true to me,

And she had daughters three or fore.

Saying, I'll be true to my love,

If my love is true to me.