I don't really know if somebody will ever read this as the posts above date from 2000! Anyway, I'm currently working on this ballad for a presentation at a Conference. I see the version you've been trying to 'decipher' is that at Bruce Olson's Web Site. After a thorough comparison of this transcription with the original MS, I realised there were (apparently) some spelling mistakes which could be misleading. As for some of the dialect words you don't know, I could give you a clue.

Should Andy G or Snuffy ever read this, drop me a line and we can discuss about this.