Lyr. Add: FAIR LUCY
Coll. Helen H. Flanders, 1933

Fair Lucy was sitting in her own father's door
Making her laments alone,
When who should come there but her own mother dear
Saying, "What makes Fair Lucy mourn?"

"I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason for to mourn,
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear Mother, it is his own."

Fair Lucy was sitting in her own cabin door
Making her laments alone.
Who should come by but her own brother dear
Saying, " What makes Fair Lucy mourn?"

"I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason for to mourn,
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear brother, it is your own.

He took her by the lily-white hand
And he led her into the woods.
What he did there, I never can declare
But he spilt Fair Lucy's blood.

"Oh, what is that upon your frock,
My son, come tell to me."
"It is one drop of Fair Lucy's blood
And that you plainly can see."

"What will your father say to you
When he returns to me?"
"I shall step my foot on board a ship
And my face he never shall see."

"What will you do with your three little babes,
My son come tell to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command
For to keep him companee."

"What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My son, come tell to me?"
"She shall step her foot on board a ship
And sail the ocean with me."

"What will you do with your houses and lands,
My son, come tell to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command
For to set my children free."

"When will you return again,
My son, come tell to me?"
"When the sun and the moon *set on yonder green hill
And I'm sure that never can be."

The singer, Mrs. Alice Sicily of Vermont, thought the word might have been "meet." Her parents sang this song, In singing, repeat the last two lines of each stanza.

With musical score, pp. 336-338.
Helen H. Flanders, 1960, "Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England," V. I, Ballads 1-51. Printed in BFSSNF, VII, 6.
Child 51, "Lizie Wan."
Franders says the ballad was reworked as "The Bloody Brother" in the Forget-me-not Songster c. 1845.