Helen Hartness Flanders on the American ballad 'The Half-Hitch' who collected the version given above. (Roud 1887)(Laws N23).

"To call 'The H-H' a form of Child 31 is to stretch the concept of the 'secondary ballad' to its limits."
"That this comic song is the result of urban presses or music halls seems certain"
"Surely, efforts such as those by Phillips Barry in BBfM p382-385, to relate the song to Child 31 are wishful."