Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands - online songbook

Southern Appalachians songs with lyrics, commentary & some sheet music.

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Orphan Girl
3. But her father was deaf to her cries; Not a word or a sound reached the door.
But the watch dog did howl and the wind blew So bitter across the wild moor.
4. Oh, how must her father have felt, When he came to the door in the morn! There he found Mary dead and the child Fondly clasped in its dead mother's arms.
138 ORPHAN GIRL See Sandburg, p. 319; Bradley Kincaid, Favorite Old-Time Songs and Mountain Ballads, Book 2, p. 27; Shearin and Combs, p. 32; Cox, No. 153; Perrow, Journal, XXVIII, 170; Fuson, p. 106.
A
Obtained from Mrs. William Franklin, Crossnore, Avery County, North Carolina, July 17, 1930.
1. "No home, no home," said a little girl At the door of a prince's hall
As she trembling sat on the marble steps And leaned on the polished wall.
2. Her clothes were thin and her feet were bare And the snow had covered her head.
"Oh, give me a home," she feebly cried, "A home, and a piece of bread.
3. "My father, alas! I never knew," And the tears did fall so bright;
"My mother sleeps in a new made grave; 'Tis an orphan that begs tonight."
4. The night was dark and the snow still fell And the rich man closed his door
And his proud lips curled as he scornfully said, "No home, no bread for the poor."
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