I've prepared a MIDI from the sheet music in the Levy collection, published by Carr's Musical Repository. Malcolm Douglas indicated that this was the song written William Gardiner, and hence presumably the original song--at least in the shortened form. With Joe's help, a link to the MIDI should shortly appear at the end of this message. In the MIDI, the melody is bracketted by a musical introduction and bridge. If you look at the sheet music, you'll also find a flute part and a guitar part, but they just restate the melody line in different keys, and cannot be played concurrently with the vocal part unless you're a fan of polytonality.

Jim Dixon transcribed the lyrics in this message above, but misinterpreted how the lyrics line up with the tune. What he indicated as the chorus was actually the first three lines of the first verse, which the chorus section just happens to echo. So the song begins with the first verse rather than a chorus, as follows:

1. Sweet Babes in the wood,
Sweet Babes in the wood,
Don't you remember the babes in the wood?
When a child on the knee,
How pleased I would be
When my mother related the story to me
        Chorus
   Of the Babes in the wood, sweet Babes in the wood.
   Don't you remember the babes in the wood?

Also, the first words of the chorus vary with the verse:
1. Of the Babes...
2/3. Poor Babes...
4. Sweet Babes...


Note that Gardiner died before the incident in Pennsylvania occurred, so unless he was a better clairvoyant than Mr Dibert, there is no connection between the song and that story.

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