Hi,

I do have the Perrow version and the three JAF articles he wrote on my site. After Perrow left Harvard he eventually ended up teaching in Missouri, then Mississippi (in 1909) then to Louisville, KY where he taught English.   

3. CARELESS LOVE (From Mississippi; country whites; MS. of R. J. Slay; 1909.)

I'm going to leave you now;
I'm going ten thousand miles.
If I go ten million more,
I'll come back to my sweetheart again.

Love, oh, love! 'tis careless love {twice)
You have broken the heart of many a poor boy,
But you will never break this heart of mine.*

I cried last night when I come home {twice)
I cried last night and night before;
I'll cry to-night; then I'll cry no more.

Who will shoe your pretty feet?
And who will glove your hand?
Who will kiss your red rosy cheeks?
When I am in that far-off land?

"Pa will shoe my pretty little feet;
Ma will glove my hand;
You may kiss my red rosy cheeks,
When you come from that far-off land."

This has a "True Lover's Farewell" stanza also in "Lonesome Dove"/"Ten Thousand Miles" and the floaters from Child 76 "Who will Shoe" which are also found in "My Blue Eyed Boy" variants. But this is not Child 76 :)

Thanks for the Sailor Boy broadsides, I knew to ck Robertson site but I hadn't yet. My earliest was the Pitts c. 1820. Still don't see any Died for Love stanzas from print. The Ashton 'Real Sailor Songs' has this stanza:

The colour of amber is my true love's hair,
His red rosy cheeks doth my heart ensnare,
His ruby lips are soft, and with charms,
I'd fain lay a night in his lovely arms.

which is floating stanza related to the Black is the Color ballads. I still suspect Niles got his version from Sharp who collected it in 1916 and published it the next year.

I have a link to Roberston's "Rambling Boy with the answer"-- there are two editions online 1799 or 1803 and another by a different publisher that's online (pdf) as well (early 1800s). I haven't see the US versions from the early 1800s.

I can email a jpeg or give a link, let me know,

Richie