Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook

A Collection of 200+ traditional songs & variations with commentaries including Lyrics & Sheet music

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Humor
401
164 THE MAID IN SORROW
For a variant, with the first stanza of the Michigan text omitted and with a different last stanza added, see Greenleaf and Mansfield, pp. rco-101.
The present version was sung in 1935 by Mr. William Rabidue, West Branch, who learned the song from Mr. Albert Farrington in a Michigan shingle mill.
i I am a maid in sorrow, in sorrow to complain,
And it's all for the sake of my Jimmy I crossed the raging main;
And if I do not find him, I'll more contented lie;
It's all for the sake of my Jimmy a maid I'll live and die.
2   O small boots, vest, and trousers this fair maid she put on;
She looked just like a sailor brave, and slowly she marched along. She bargained with the captain her passage to go free And to be his chief companion all on the raging sea.
3   One night as they sat talking, just as they were going to bed, The captain sighs and then replied, saying, "I wish you were a
maid; For the blushes of your rosy cheeks it so entices me That I could wish with all my heart you are the maid for me."