The lyrics as sung by Doc Watson are significantly different. He and David Holt will be at the Ozark Folk Center on Saturday night, but unfortunately I have other commitments for the evening. Otherwise I would make it a point to ask Doc what his source for the lyrics was. I like his version better.

The Telephone Girl
as sung by Doc Watson on Legacy, High Windy 1258, 2002

Here of late I feel so strange
I'm happy and I'm sad
The way my feelings are sometimes
I think they'll drive me mad
A pretty little girl with frizzy curls
Came here a week ago
To work upon the telephone
And sh'said, hello, hello

Hello, hello, her sweet hello
Her voice like music rings
It's sweeter than the whippoorwill
That in the moonlight sings            
As the bell boy here at this hotel
I'm always on the go
And then she'll ring that telephone
And say hello, hello

I haven't spoken to her yet
I've been in such a daze
Although sometimes she looks at me
With a sort of a distant gaze
That I feel so weak, I cannot speak
My heart is beating so
And then she'll ring that telephone
And say hello, hello

I see her as she walks along
In sunshine and in rain
I can hear her midst the jangle
Of the elevated train
I'd buy for us a little place
Where honeysuckles grow
She could meet me at the garden gate
And say hello, hello

In about a year, she married me
And then we settled down
In a pretty little bungalow
Not very far from town
At night as I go home from work
My heart is beating so
She'll kiss me at the door
And say . . . hello . . . hello . . . hello