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COME ALL YOUNG GIRLS OF A RAMBLING NATURE (THE RAMBLING BEAUTY) Sung by: Mrs. Nettie Huddleston Barnes Click here to listen to the original recording My love for thee is like rings of gold. So round this ring that has no end, So is my love for you, my friend. One night while I was a-watching 'round for to leave her (?), I offered her a wedding ring. Oh, how scornfully she refused it, Saying, "I never thought of any such thing." One night while I was . . . around for to leave her, I thought I'd make her this reply: "If you ever should have the mind to marry, I hope you'll trouble as well as I." Oh, now she's married to the Duke of Norway, The drunkard and gambler of the town, And if you ever should pass that lonely mansion, You'd hear a lovely woman say: "My husband don't in the least regard me When he drinks and gambles night and day. Come, all young girls of a rambling nature, And never turn your first love away, For it's many a bright and sunshiny morning Has turned to a dark and a dismal day." (Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn that song?" Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned it when I was a kid at home." Dr. Wolf: "Where was that? Where?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Where Carson Huddleston lived. You know where he lives?" Dr. Wolf: "Yeah." Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I was raised there." Dr. Wolf: "Oh, were you?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Yeah. Jack Huddleston, or John Huddleston was my daddy." Dr. Wolf: "Who taught you the song?" Mrs. Huddleston: "My daddy. My daddy was a schoolteacher before he married my mother, and mother didn't want him to teach school, and he was a-studying doctor books, great big old medical books. Was going to make a doctor. And you know, she refused . . . she wouldn't let him. And he bought that eighty acres over there. Carson's on there now. It belongs to Carson. We all sold our part to Carson. And, so." Dr. Wolf: "What was your daddy's full name?" Mrs. Huddleston: "John. People called him Jack, though. Aunt Betty Ball called him Jack; it was her brother, you know, . . . Barnett's mother. . . . mother was my Daddy's sister." Dr. Wolf: "Now, where did you learn 'The Pretty Golden Queen'?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I learned it at home." Dr. Wolf: "Did you father teach you that one?" Mrs. Huddleston: "My mother taught us." Dr. Wolf: "Your mother? I see. And how about 'Black Jack Davy'?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I learned it then. We used to sing 'Black Jack Davy.' I learnt that over there at home." Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn, "Come All Young Girls"?" Mrs. Huddleston: " '. . . of a Rambling Nature'? Well, I learnt it then too, but it was later, you know, after we learnt them other songs." Dr. Wolf: "How about the wagon, 'Wait For the Wagon and We'll All Take a Ride'?" Mrs. Huddleston: "I never have got all of that. I've got it all but the last verse." Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn that one?" Mrs. Huddleston: "I must have learned it from my daddy." Dr. Wolf: "I see. And how about 'Sanford Barnes'?" Mrs. Huddleston: "'Billy Barnes'?" Dr. Wolf: "'Billy Barnes,' yes." Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned it from my Daddy. It don't . . . that change now like it used to be, you know. That's a great old long song, too, and the 'Pretty Golden Queen,' I guess I wrote you that one." Dr. Wolf: "Yes, and let's see, there was another one, 'Barbry Allen.' Did you learn that . . ." Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned that from my Daddy. I've heard him sing it a many a night." Dr. Wolf: "Well, you learned just about all of them from him." Mrs. Huddleston: "You se, I'm the oldest one in the family, and there was, uh, me and my sister Minnie, and Daisy, Lucy and Julie, five girls. Well, there was . . . and Alphie and . . . and Carson, four boys. Well, we'd listen to him sing at night to them least ones . . . you know, these songs, and we learnt them . . . Yes sir, and he was setting a-rocking the little ones, see, to sleep. Yes sir. You see, us girls were the oldest ones in the family, except Julie, my baby sister. And she bought her a fine home at Hay-tie (?), Missouri, and she went to church and Sunday school one Sunday and helped them sing, got back to her gate, and she dropped dead. Heart trouble. But she had been to the . . . in a hospital, you know, before she went up there, and they told her that she ought not to stay by herself. And she . . . she didn't even get in the house, now. You know, she lived there in . . . in the town, and they seen her fall. And they got down there, she was dead. You know houses are close together in these towns. Well, I hate it bad . . . but she was way younger than me. And I'm the oldest one. And I'll be 83 on Halloween day." Dr. Wolf: "Will you?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Yes. 83 years, I tell you, that's old age. Yes, I was born in 1879." Dr. Wolf: "Is that so?" Mrs. Huddleston: "Yes. I've got some old nickels that was made in 1800. I've been thinking I'd write and see what I could get out of them. I've got five old nickels.") Also found in Belden, p. 191, "The Rambling Beauty." |
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All Songs Recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr., unless otherwise noted The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas Back to the Song Index Back to the Wolf Collection Homepage ©Copyright 2002 Lyon College |