Early American Ballads. 121
This version gives only the first half of the ballad ; the following, still sung in Georgia, is more complete ; the refrain shows the ori- ginal form, curiously altered in the Boston variant : —
" As you go up to yonders town, Rosemary and thyme Give my respects to that young girl, And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Rosemary and thyme Without a seam of needlework,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to wash it in yonders well,
Rosemary and thyme Where water never flowed nor rain ever fell, And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to hang it on yonders thorn,
Rosemary and thyme That never has budded since Adam was born, And she shall be a true lover of mine."
" When you go back to yonders town, / Rosemary and thyme Give my respects to that young man, And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to buy ten acres of land,
Rosemary and thyme Betwixt the salt sea and the sand, And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to plant it with one grain of corn,
Rosemary and thyme And plough it all in with a mooly-cow's horn, And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to mow it with sickle of leather,
Rosemary and thyme And carry it all in on a peafowl's feather, And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to take it to yonders mill,
Rosemary and thyme If every grain a barrel shall fill, He shall be a true lover of mine.
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