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Oxford Tragedy 
Oxford Tragedy 
Once there was a little tailor boy About sixteen years of age; My father hired me to a miller That I might learn the trade. 
I fell in love with a Knoxville girl, Her name was Flora Dean. Her rosy cheeks, her curly hair, I really did admire. 
Her father he persuaded me To take Flora for a wife; The devil he persuaded me To take Flora's life. 
Up stepped her mother so bold and gay, So boldly she did stand; Johnny dear, go marry her And take her off my hands. 
I went unto her father's house About nine o'clock at night, A-asking her to take a walk To do some prively talk. 
We had not got so very far Till looking around and around, He stooping down picked up a stick And knocks little Flora down. 
She fell upon her bended knees, For mercy she did cry: O Johnny dear, don't murder me, For I'm not fit to die. 
I took her by her lily-white hands A-slung her around and around ; I drug her off to the river-side, And plunged her in to drown. 
I returned back to my miller's house 
About nine o'clock at night, But little did my miller know What I had been about. 
The miller turned around and about, Said:" Johnny, what blooded your clothes?" Me being so apt to take a hint: By bleeding at the nose. 
About nine or ten days after that, Little Flora she was found A-floating down by her father's house Who lived in Knoxville town. 
From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Sharp Collected from Mary Wilson and Mrs. Townley, Kentucky, 1917 DT #311 Laws P35