YOUNG EMILY

Young Emily was a pretty fair miss,
She loved the driver boy,
Who drove the stage some gold to get,
Down in the lowlands low.

"My father owns a boarding house,
Along yon riverside,
Go there, go there and enter in,
This night with me abide.

"Be sure you tell them nothing,
Nor let my parents know,
That your name is young Edmund,
Who drove the lowlands low."

Young Edmund fell to drinking,
Until he went to bed,
He did not know a sword that night
Would part his neck and head.

Young Emily in her chamber,
She had an awful dream,
She dreamed she saw young Edmund's blood,
Go flowing like a stream.

Young Emily rose in the morning,
Putting on her clothes,
She's going to find her driver boy,
Who drove the lowlands low.

"Oh father, where's that stranger,
Came here last night to dwell?"
"His body's in the ocean,
And you no tale must tell."

"Oh father, oh dear father,
You'll die a public show,
For the murdering of my driver boy,
Who drove the lowland low."

Away then to some counselor,
To let the deed be known,
Of the murdering of her driver boy,
Who drove the lowlands low.

Them fish that swim in the ocean,
Swim o'er my true love's breast,
His body's in a gentle motion,
And I hope his soul's at rest.

Them coats that hang on the mountains,
They look so blue and true,
They remind me of my driver boy,
Who drove in the lowland low.


...as sung by Doug Wallin, Sodom, Madison County, N.C.

Source: Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains Smithsonian Folkways recording by Doug and Jack Wallin SFW40013