My spirit would cast off its gloom,—

I would sit with my sorrow no longer

O’erwatching the dew-covered field.’”

The singer’s voice rose and fell, plaintive and sweet, and then she played a few more chords before she continued:

“‘I said to my father already,

Already I said to my taper,—

“Nay! marry me not, O my father!

O marry me not to the proud one!

O seek not for high piles of riches;

O seek not for palaces fair,