Lyr. Add: OLD SMOKY
(Scarborough F, North Carolina)

1
On top of Old Smoky
all covered in snow,
Where I lost my true lover
by courting too slow.
2
While courting is a pastime,
flirting is grief,
A false-hearted lover
is worse than a thief.
3
A thief he will rob you
and take what you have,
But a false-hearted lover
will lead you to the grave.
4
Thy body'll decay
and go unto dust.
Not a boy in a thousand
a poor girl can trust.
5
It's raining, it's hailing,
the moon gives no light.
Your horses can't travel
such a dark, lonesome night.
6
Go put up your horses
and feed them some hay.
Come sit down beside me
just as long as you stay.
7
My horses ain't hungry,
they won't eat your hay,
So goodbye, my darling,
I'll feed on the way.
8
I'll try to Georgia
and write you my mind.
My mind is to marry
and leave you behind.
9
As sure as the dew drops
falls on the green corn;
Last night he was with me,
but tonight he is gone.
10
My poor heart is breaking,
I am dying today.
My only true lover,
has left me this way.
11
Take me back to Old Smoky
there dig my grave,
Where the wild birds and turtle doves
can't hear my sad cry.
12
I'll lie there and slumber
till the great Judgement morn.
At the sound of the last trumpet
from the dead I'll arise.
13
I'll arise from Old Smoky
on the mountain so high,
And I'll meet my true lover
In the land in the sky.

One of eight versions of the complex of "Old Smoky," "The Waggoner's Lad," "False-Hearted Lover," and related songs from North Carolina. They share the same or closely variant tune, although with slight differences; Scarborough provides brief scores of each.
This is one (F), from Selma Chubb, South Turkey Creek; collected 1930. Brief musical score provided, p. 430.

Dorothy Scarborough, 1937, A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, pp. 278-279. Columbia Univ. Press.