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172 Ballads and Songs of Michigan
62 THE WEAVER IS HANDSOME
For slighdy similar texts see John Ashton, Real Saihf Songs (London, 1891), pp. 55-56; JFSS, II, 181-182, and VIII, 9-10.
Version A was sung in 1934 by Mr. Chauncey Leach, Kalkaska, who learned the song from Mr. Merton Waterhouse, Mount Pleasant, about 1890. |
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1 "Some say Til go crazy, some say I'll run mad,
For it's ofttimes I'm courted by a roving young lad. He courted me highly, both by night and by day, And now he's a-leavmg me and going away."
Chorus
"For the weaver is handsome, the weaver is tall,
And if I can't have the weaver, my life I'll destroy."
2 Her father came to her this morning in May, And to his dear daughter he kindly did say, "Dear daughter, dear daughter, if this be your lot, Tis go and get married; I'll hinder you not."
3 Then as Willie was riding up to the church door, The press gang came to him, full forty or more. They dragged him away, away from her,
And instead of the wedding it was a sorrowful day.
4 "I'll cut off my hair and I'll dress in men's clothes, And I'll follow the weaver wherever he goes." As Nellie was a-walking on the seashore one day, She spied her own Willie not very far away. |
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These words they came to her ofttimes o'er and o'er, "For all that you do and for all I've gone through, Dear parents, I'll have the weaver in spite of all you can do." |
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