Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/487

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SURVIVALS OF OLD BRITISH BALLADS
469


"Hangman, hangman, howd yo hand, O howd it wide and far! For theer I see my sweetheart cooming Riding through the air.

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, ha yo brought me goold? Ha yo paid my fee? Or ha yo coom to see me hung Beneath the hangman s tree?"

"Oh, I ha brought yo goold, And I ha paid yo fee, And I ha coom to take yo froom Beneath the hangman s tree."

THE WIFE OF USHER S WELL

There was a lady fair and gay, And children she had three: She sent them away to some northern land, For to learn their grameree. They had n t been gone but a very short time, About three months to a day, When sickness came unto that land And swept those babies away. There is a King in the heavens above That wears a golden crown: She prayed that He would send her babies home To-night or in the morning soon. It was about one Christmas time, When the night was long and cool, She dreamed of her three little lonely babes Come running in their mother s room.