Hi,

Here's the letter stanza (see Firth Broadside) from Mrs Jacobs learned about 1871 in Kentucky. She sings it here: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WiscFolkSong/data/audio/MmBib/WiscFolkSong/500/reference/000459r.mp4

Oh Mary dear, go ask your mother,
If you indeed may marry me
And if she says, "No" come back and tell me
And it's the last time I'll trouble thee.

Oh no I can't ask my mother,
For she's in her bed of rest.
And in her hand she holds a letter,
That has caused the most, of my distress.

Richie