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still others composed on American soil. With a few exceptions where the subject was historical, these more modern ballads have remained uncollected; perhaps such neglect involves no great literary loss, but as illustrating popular taste and folk-life the ballads have their curiosity. In this article will be brought together a few of these contributed from various sources; very likely the publication will bring to light a whole crop, for the number of such songs current in the early part of the century must have been considerable. At the present day, similar ballads are sung chiefly in isolated mountain districts, in North Carolina or East Tennessee; but these survivals correspond to like histories formerly well known in the New England and Middle States.

With regard to local ballads Dr. W. M. Beauchamp writes as follows:—

"The colonists of New England were fond of long and doleful ditties on local themes; and part of one of these has haunted my mind for years, perhaps because of a mock discussion on its true reading. It commenced,—

"When in Springfield lately, I sought for information on the old song, but found only one young man who knew about it. It was his father's favorite, but as the son was sung to sleep by it of course he did not know the whole. So I am ignorant on which of the Springfield mountains the lovely youth dwelt, or in which of the meadows he went for to mow.

"On my return home a friend had rescued another ballad for me, written on time-discolored paper, with an antique British watermark, being evidently the ballad in the handwriting of its author. It is entitled,—