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190 Ballads and Songs of Michigan
70 THE GREEN MOSSY BANKS OF THE LEA
For a much longer text of this song popular in English broadsides and for references see Mackenzie, pp. 135-136.
The present version was sung in 1934 by Mr. Chauncey Leach, Kalkaska, who in 1889 learned the song from Mr. Ben Yansier in Teen Swan's lumber camp about thirteen miles west of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
1 When first to this country a stranger, Curiosity caused me to roam,
I resolved in my mind to be a ranger When I left Philadelphia, my home.
2 I first beat my way to Chicago When bright and splendor did shine, And there I beheld a fair female
Who I wished in my heart she was mine.
3 I boldly stepped up to this loved one (Although sometimes you may lose),
Saying, "The fields and the meadows, they are charming, And your guardeen I'll be if you choose."
4 Says she, "As of a guardeen I need none, And, too, you're a stranger to me, And yonder my father is a-coming O'er the green mossy banks of the Dee "
5 I boldly stepped up to her father, And this I did say o'er and o'er, "Old man, if this be your daughter, She's the beautified girl that I adore."
6 They asked me over the very next day, When bright and splendor did shine, And it's there I wed with Matilda Whom so long I had wished she was mine. |
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