Lyr. Add: LUCY LONG

1
One night when the moon was beaming,
I strayed with my Lucy Long,
The beautiful stars were beaming
and the night bird sang his song,
We wandered by the brookside
where we never had wandered before,
And listened to the gurgling waters,
and the notes on the pebbled shore.
The silver shining moon,
Guide Ephraim on his way,
O soon, you see, we'll married be,
And oh, what a happy day.
2
The nighthawk sang his soft ha-ha,
and the owl sat in the tree,
And the whippoorwills were watching
around my love and me.
We wandered by the brookside,
where we never had wandered before,
And listened to the gurgling waters
and the notes on the pebbled shore.
3
I asked her if she'd marry me,
a blush came o'er her cheek,
Her heart it palpitated,
and my Lucy could not speak.
At last she whispered in my ear
and said she'd marry me soon,
I kissed away the dewy tears
as they danced by the light of the moon.

Collected in Arkansas; the singers said they learned it about 1892.
Randolph said that there is a minstrel dialect piece, "Oh Silber Shining Moon," in a song sheet printed by Andrews NY in the Los Angeles Public Library.
No. 780, 295-296, Vance Randolph, "Ozark Folksongs," vol. 4; 1980 ed.

"Oh Silber Shining Moon" songsheet is also at American Memory. It follows in the next post.