Lynn,

I just had a whack at it, comparing the Ezra Barhight text above with the Flanders audio of deLorme. I went to Fowke & Warner for a few key things I wasn't quite hearing accurately on the deLorme recording. I can't get a few words in the last line, but I believe the rest is good. Can anyone help on the last verse (which doesn't seem to appear at all in any of the other versions I have).

As I rode out one evening just as the sun went down
Quite carelessly I roved around till I came to Trenton town,
I heard two maids conversing as slowly I passed them by,
One said she loved a farmer's son and the other a shanty boy.

The one that loved the farmer's son, these words I heard her say,
The reason why I like him, at home with me he'll stay
He'll stay at home all winter, to the shanty he'll not go,
And in the spring when it does come in, his lands he'll plow and sow.

"As for to plow and sow the fields", the other girl did say,
"And if his crops do not do well, his debts he can not pay
His crops they prove a failure, or the grain market be low
Oft times the bailiffs sell them out to pay the debts they owe."

"As for the bailiff selling out, it does not me alarm
There's no danger of going in debt while you're living on a farm
You put your land down in the spring and don't work through storms of rain
While your shanty boy must work each day his family to maintain.

"Oh how I like my shanty boy that goes away in the fall
He is both stout and hearty and able to stand the squall,
Quite cheerfully I'll greet him when he comes home in the spring
His money will be free and he'll share it with me while your farmers sons have none."

"Oh how you praise your shanty boy that in the woods doth go
He's ordered out before daybreak to work through storms and snow
While happy and contented my farmer's son can lie
And he'll whisper tales of love to me till the storm goes raging by

"I cannot bear the soft talk", your farmer's son would say,
"For some of them they are so green that a cow might eat for hay,
How easy you can tell them whenever they come to town
For the little boys after them will run, saying "Nick why are you down?"

Now what I've said of your shanty boys, I hope to be excused
If from those ignorant farmer's sons I ever do get free
If ever I do get a chance, with a shanty boy I'll go
And I'll leave him broken hearted, his lands to plow and sow."

Oh it's how you've slighted your farmer's son, that plows and sows the field
You will believe the statement as how the crops do yield
With your shanty boys ?????????????? with money in both hands
And without a sigh with him I'll go, and while he works his land

From the singing of Lily deLorme, Cadyville/Hardscrabble NY, August 1944