Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/469
This version gives only the first half of the ballad; the following, still sung in Georgia, is more complete; the refrain shows the original form, curiously altered in the Boston variant:—
"As you go up to yonders town,
Rosemary and thyme
Give my respects to that young girl,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Rosemary and thyme
Without a seam of needlework,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to wash it in yonders well,
Rosemary and thyme
Where water never flowed nor rain ever fell,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell her to hang it on yonders thorn,
Rosemary and thyme
That never has budded since Adam was born,
And she shall be a true lover of mine."
"When you go back to yonders town,
Rosemary and thyme
Give my respects to that young man,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to buy ten acres of land,
Rosemary and thyme
Betwixt the salt sea and the sand,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to plant it with one grain of corn,
Rosemary and thyme
And plough it all in with a mooly-cow's horn,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to mow it with sickle of leather,
Rosemary and thyme
And carry it all in on a peafowl's feather,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Go tell him to take it to yonders mill,
Rosemary and thyme
If every grain a barrel shall fill,
He shall be a true lover of mine.