The theory that the version with the gravy is the unexpurgated version is just that, a theory. My theory is that it is the corrupted version, probably cobbled together by a half-drunk guy who couldn't get laid. Since he couldn't experience love, he trashed it.

Have you ever read the original account, embedded in the works of Jonathon [sp] Swift? It simply reeks of jealous hypocrisy.

Face it, guys. Davy was a small man with curly hair, probably charming. He had the brains and integrity to be a minister. His wife-to-be, perhaps a petite woman herself, looked on him and liked what she saw. They got married, and the rest came naturally.

Add to this the adventure motif - that she rescued him from a passel of mounted thugs who were pursuing him across country, and you have a sure-fire winner of a song. (They weren't planning to stop him and ask for some ID, you know.)