Many years ago, I had heard from an uncle who was born in the 1870s what he said was an old 19th century ballad (folk song?) about a fellow whose girlfriend or wife (Nellie, I think was her name) was dying and the Doc said she would be gone by the time the Autumn leaves fell. Well, the fellow was tying the leaves on the trees so they wouldn't fall in the wasted hope that it would keep her alive.

Then somewhere in the 1940/1950 time frame, Moon Mullican recorded a song about an orphan boy whose baby sister was dying, and the boy was asking the singer/narrator to help him tie the leaves to the trees.

I have an old recording of the Mullican song and was wondering if there really was an older ballad that was the inspiration for the Mullican recording, or was my uncle's memory a little mixed up . . . or (golly!!) maybe mine is shot? Eu