Two Brothers
Mary Wood Shifflett
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There was two brothers in one school room One evening coming home The oldest said to the youngest one Let's have a rassle and fall The oldest threw the youngest one He threw him to the ground And out of his pocket he drew a pen knife He gave him a deathly wound Pull off, pull off your woolen shirt And tear it from gore to gore And wrap it around my bleeding wound And it will bleed no more So he pulled off his woolen shirt He tore it from gore to gore He wrapped it around his bleeding wound And it did bleed no more Take me up, take me up upon your back And carry me yonder church yard And dig my grave both wide and deep And gently lay me down What must I tell your loving father When he calls for his son John? Tell him I'm in some lonely green woods A' learning young hounds to run. What must I tell your loving mother When she calls for her son John? Tell her I'm in some graded school Good scholar to never return. What must I tell your loving Susie When she calls for her dear John? Tell her I'm in some lonely graveyard My books to carry back home. When loving Susie heard of this She got her horn and blew. She charmed the birdies from the nest The fishes out of the sea. She charmed little Johnny out of his grave Said Susie what do you want? Oh one sweet kiss from your sweet lips Is all my heart does crave Go home, go home my loving Susie And weep no more for me, For one sweet kiss from my sweet lips Will cause your days short on |
Mary Wood Shiflett sings this strange version of an old ballad with its awkwardly disjointed melody recalling, "I learnt it from my father-in-law, Raz Shifflett (Robert Shifflett's father) settin' up to the fireplace playin' his fiddle and singin'. That's where I learnt it from."
Many times Robert Shifflett and Mary have told me of singing this song as children to "Professor" Stone, a local school teacher who had the love of old ballads. Indeed it appears in Traditional Ballads of Virginia by A.K. Davis as collected by Mr. John Stone in 1919. "Professor" Stone notes, "I got this song and its tune from Etta Shiflett, the little daughter of Raz Shiflett, of Blackwell's Hollow. She and her brothers can sing it." The brothers would be Mary's future husband [Dewey] and her brother-in-law, Robert Shifflett. It is amazing that from the version collected in 1919 to Mary's current recollection there is scarcely a word changed.
The ballad story given here is itself a strange mixture of old ballad tales. Onto the trunk of "The Two Brothers" has been grafted limbs from other old ballads, "Edward" and "The Unquiet Grave." Despite its hybrid nature, Miss Mary has frozen its form in her mind and it is unchanged for the last half century.
©1993 George Foss
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