Lyr. Add: KITTY KLINE

1
Take me home, take me home, take me home,
Take me home, take me home, take me home,
When the moon shines bright, and the stars give light,
Tak me home, take me home, take me home.
2*
"Oh, who will shoe your little feet,
Oh, who will glove your little hand,
Oh, who will kiss your sweet rosy cheek,
When I'm gone to that far-distant land?"
3*
"Oh, Popper'll shoe my little feet,
And Mommer'll glove my little hand,
And you shall kiss my sweet rosy cheek,
When you shall come from that far-distant land.
4
"oh, I can't stay hyar by myself,
Oh, I can't stay hyah by myself,
I'll weep like a willer, an' I'll mourn like a dove,
Oh, I can't stay hyah by myself.
5
"If I was a little fish
I would swim to the bottom of the sea,
And thar I'd sing my sad little song,
Oh, I can't stay hyah by myself.
6
"If I was a sparrer bird,
I would fly to the top of a tree,
And thar I'd sing my sad little song,
Oh, I can't stay hyah by myself.

"Oh, I can't stay hyah by myself, etc.

7
"Yonder sets a turtle-dove,
A-hoppin' from vine to vine,
He's a mournin' fur his own true love,
An' why not me fur mine?"
8
"I'm a goin' ter the top of that nigh pine,
I'm a goin' to the top of that nigh pine,
An/ ef I fall 'thout breakin' my neck,
You'll know who I love the best."

*Cf. verses from "The Lass of Roch Royal," Child, no. 76.

Version A, pp. 240-241, Louise Rand Bascom, "Ballads and Songs of Western North Carolina," JAFL vol. 21, no. 84, 1908.
Bascom states that this "charming ballad is at least fifty years old and how much further it dates back is not easy to conjecture,..."
These versions (A, B) are the first published of the song, acc. to the Trad. Ballad Index. They were later included in Brown, "North Carolina Folklore."