These are the words that I sang to my kids and grandkids:

Oh, he's gone away
For to stay a little while.
But he's comin' back
'Though it be ten thousand mile. (sic)
Yes, he's comin' back
'Though it be ten thousand miles. (sic)

For who will glove my hands?
And who will shoe my feet?
And who will fill my heart
'Til again we two shall meet?

Yes, he's gone away
For to stay a little while. etc. etc.

I don't know how many generations before me had these words, but at least from the mid 1800's.

Thank you,
Lucy Geyser
LGeyser@aol.com

P.S. We also sang a game song that isn't in your database:

Here comes the king a-riding, a-riding, a-riding,
Here comes the king a-riding - for Tipsy Topsy T - I - O.

(This was sung by a single person, playing the king, as he danced forward towards a line of others with the first line and then danced back to where he had come from while singing the second line. The setup was similar to Red Rover, or the Farmer in the Dell.)
(The line then danced forwards and backwards while singing back at him)

What are you riding here for, here for, here for,
What are you riding here for - for Tipsy Topsy T - I - O.

(There followed a series of this type of thing.)

King - I've come to take a wife, wife, wife,..
Group - You can't have none of us, none of us, none of us,..

King - Why can't I have none of you, none of you, none of you,..
Group - You're face is black and dirty, dirty, dirty,..

King - Then I won't pick none of you, none of you, none of you,..
Group - Well, you can have one of us, one of us, one of us,..

(At this point, following that excellent exercise in grammar, the king would come forward and pick someone to stand beside him as his wife. From then on, the two would be singing the King's part. They would then continue to choose a son, a daughter, a nurse, a dog, a cat, a cow, and however many people, or animals, or things were required to continue until there was only one person left in the Group. At that point he/she became the King/Queen and the process was continued. If the person playing the royalty was a girl, she sang that she was the Queen, coming to take a husband. The only verse that was not danced forward and backwards was "You're face is black and dirty" which was sung with the backside waggling towards the opposite side.)
I have no idea where this Tipsy Topsy T - I - O came from. Everyone knew it where I lived (in a War Housing Project) in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944. I was 9 or 10 at that time. Between our sing-song games (like this one) and our sing-song jump rope verses, we had lots of rhyming going on. We also did what was called at that time "Doing the Dozens" (rhymes that were like what was later called calypso) and "Doing the Dirty Dozens" (rhymes that were insults - but they had to be clever). Later I was told that that only blacks kids did this, but at that time we were all white and we were doing it. Maybe somebody had heard it from someone else. The project had 432 families in it, so there were plenty of kids of any age you wanted to play with.