Here is a Mississippi variant.

Annie Girl

Annie girl, Annie girl, go ask your mother
If you can be my bride today.
If she says yes, come quick and tell me;
If she says no we'll run away.

My momma says that she's not willin
my papa says twill never do
For me to leave a world of pleasure
And run away with a man like you.

Annie girl, Annie girl, I've gold and silver
Annie girl, Annie girl I've house and land
Annie girl, Annie girl I've a world of pleasure
That you can have at your command

It's what do I care for your gold and silver
It's what do I care for your house and land
What do I care for your world of pleasure
When all I want is a handsome man?

Annie girl, Annie girl don't marry for beauty
For beauty is a deceiving [fay]
Beauty is the stars on a summer morning
When the stars all fade away

I have a true lover out on the ocean
For seven long years he's on the sea
If he lives single for seven years longer
Not a man on earth shall marry me

Perhaps your ture lover he is dronwed
Perhaps he's on some battle-field slain
Perhaps he's to some pretty girl married
And his face you'll never see again

If he's drowned, I hope he is happy
Or if he is slain in battle
And if he is to some pretty girl ismarried
I'll love the girl that married him.


Communicated by Mrs. GV Easley, Tula who stated in 1921 that it was one of the most popular songs in her girlhood in Calhoun County. This is a compound of three songs "The Drowsy Sleeper, The Spanish Lady, and A Pretty Fair Maid

AP Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi. 1936 UNC Press