He promised to bring me a bunch of blue ribbon
To wear on my pretty brown hair.
He said if I’d love him he never would leave me,
But now I have chased him I hope he won’t grieve me,
I love him so dearly I hope he won’t leave me,
But Johnnie is so long at the fair.
O dear, what can the matter be?
Johnnie is so long at the fair.
[74] This song, which is probably of white origin, has a wide distribution. The present version is from North Carolina. The song is mentioned in Pound’s syllabus, Folk Song of Nebraska and the Central West. Perrow gives a version in Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 28, p. 169.
Worried Anyhow[75]