Text Box: You ask me mates to spin a yarn before I go below As the night is calm and bright and there's no chance of a blow I’ll tell you all a story mates as true as ever yet's been told. Shipmates, I wouldn't lie about the dead, no, not for gold. It's a story of a maid and lad who loved in days gone by The maiden was Meg Anderson, and the lad, shipmates, was I. As neat and trim as little Meg was very hard to find. She could climb the hill and make five knots against the wind. The old school master used to say, Well, mates, it made me cry, The smartest was Meg Anderson and the biggest dunce was I. What cared I for learning when Meg was by my side? Although a lad I loved her mates, for her I would have died. She loved me too that little Meg and often I would smile, when she'd say, "Bill, I'll be your wife", with the prettiest of that child. I knew that Meg, I'd never win no matter how I tried. For on a bed of down lay Meg and on a bed of straw lay I. Meg's fortune was twelve ships at sea and houses on the land. Well, mates, mine, you could hold it in your hand. Her father owned dominions vast, for miles along the shore. My father had a fishing shack, a hut and nothing more. I never dreamt of leaving Meg, nor her of leaving me­ For I was young and never dreamt that I should go to sea. One fine morning father said, "There's a whale ship in the bay. I want you Bill to take a trip and go on board today." Well mates, three weeks from that time I bid them all good-bye While on the dock stood little Meg and on the deck, stood I. I saw her off before we sailed and every time we went on shore She'd say, "Bill, while you were gone, I loved you more and more”. As I whispered words of hope and kissed her eyelids dry. The last words were," God spare you Bill". That parted Meg and I. A lane it lay between us mates with waters running high. On one side stood Meg Anderson and on the other side stood I. I sailed the seas for four long years, until one summer's day When the good old ship Virginia cast anchors in our bay. My heart ran high with hope, mates to see my home once more. And hundreds there were on the pier to welcome me on shore. My heart it sang within me as I gazed with wandering eye. My little Meg was on the dock, as on the deck stood I. My heart was almost broken as I went on shore that day. They told me that my Meg had wed when I was far away. They told me that they’d forced her to and wrecked her life. Just think, dear mates, for a child in years to be an old man's wife. Well, her father said it must be so and what could I reply. Well, just sixteen was little Meg and twenty-one was I. Well, it was a short while after, maybe a year or more. One night Jack Glenn and I were rowing to the shore. When right ahead we saw a sight that made us hold our breath. There floating in the cold moonlight was a woman cold in death. We raised her up, good shipmates, for if we'd passed her by, there in the bay lay little Meg and over her, stood I. Next day we laid poor Meg aside as neatly on the wave. My spirit wanders forth to watch beside the grave. Her father knows not where she lies nor him who her betrayed. There's nobody but Bill knows where little Meg is laid. In a deep dark grave of willows with her father's house nearby There lies in peace Meg Anderson and here shipmates am I.


 

Branch Come Home Year

August 9-19, 2007

Little Meg

As recited by Leo English