The version in the Digital Tradition most closely related to this series is title The single girl in the DT. It's from Sharp's English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians. You'll find the same version on pp. 154-155 of Lomax & Lomax American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934). Some of the lyrics in the DT seem garbled, so I'll post my scan from Lomax here.

When I Was Single

[ Woman Speaks]
When I was single, went dressed so fine;
Now I am married, go ragged all the time.

Chorus:
I wish I was a single girl again,
O Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again!

When I was single, my shoes did screak;
Now I am married, my shoes they do leak.

Three little babies crying for bread,
With none to give them, I'd rather be dead.

Wash them and strip them and put them to bed,
Before your husband curses you and wishes them dead.

Wash their little feet and send them to school,
Along comes a drunkard and calls them a fool.

When I was single, I eat biscuit and pie;
Now I am married it's eat corn-bread or die.

When he comes in, it's a curse and a row,
Knocking down the children and pulling out my hair.

Dishes to wash and spring to go to;
When you are married, you've all to do.

Suppers to get, the cows to milk,
Them blame little children is all crying yet.


Click to play - tune from DT
The DT tune looks OK - it matches the tune in the Lomax book exactly.
-Joe Offer-