This book is in front of me, so I'll post a "Missouri" form. I wonder if Joe can find a California form.

TEXAN BOYS

Come all ye Missouri girls and listen to my noise;
You must not marry these Texan boys.
For if you do your portion will be
Cold johnnycake and venison is all you'll see.

They'll take you out on the black oak hills,
And that so bitterly against your wills;
They'll leave you there th starve in that place,
And that's just the way with the Texan race.

Down in the mountains where they stay
The sun don't shine till the middle of the day.
At the foot of each mountain they have a little field;
A peck to the acre is a very good yield.

It's gravelly there, as sure as you're born;
They have to carry dirt to cover up the corn.
A pumpkin or squash will grow very fine
Or anything else that'll grow on a vine.

-------------------
The house they live in is hewed out of logs,
Hewed out logs and a puncheon floor,
A clapboard roof and a rawhide door.

When they go to milk they milk in a gourd,
Set it in the corner and cover it with a board.
Some get little and some get none,
And that's just the way with the Texan.

---------------

When they go to meeting what do you reckon they wear?
Their old leather coats, all pitch and tar,
Their old wool hats, more brim than crown,
Their old cotton socks, all ribbed up and down.

When the boys get hungry they bake their bread.
They build up a fire as high as your head.
Shovel up the ashes and roll in the dough;
The name that they give it is dough, boys, dough!

Pp. 426-427, words only. From MS. ballad book of James Ashby, secured in 1906 by Miss Welty.
H. M. Belden, 1940, "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society," Univ. Missouri Press.