Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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Dandoo / The Wee Cooper o' Fife / The Scolding Wife / Gentle Fair Jenny / Jennifer Gentle / As the Dew Flies over the Green Vallee / Robin-a-Thrush / Rissolty Rossolty / Hobblety Bobblety / Nickety Nackety / The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin (Child No. 277) - Sung by Joan Moser of Swannanoa, North Carolina. Daughter of Artus Monroe Moser. Recorded by Prof. Kenneth S. Goldstein in the late 1950s.

Song transcription:

I married me a wife and took her home,
Jenny fair Jenny, fair Rosy Marie,
I'd ofttimes wished that I'd left her alone
As the dew flies over the green valley.

First day at noon came in from the plow,
My dearest wife is my dinner ready now.

There's a little piece of cornbread layin' on the shelf,
If you want anymore you can cook it yourself.

Second day at noon came in from the plow,
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready now.

Get out of here you dirty whelp,
If you want any dinner go cook it yourself.

I took my knife and I went out,
I cut me a hickory limb good and stout.

I took my knife and went out to my pen
I got em a hold of an old wetherskin

I took the skin and I went back
Around her back I made it thwack

I'll tell my family and all my kin,
That you whipped me with that hickory limb.

You can tell your father and all your kin
All I whipped was my old wetherskin.