From Sam Hazel, Mississippi

Sam Hazel learned this song on Ohio River steamboats working between Louisville, Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana.

Source: Recorded in 1939 by Herbert Halpert under joint sponsorship of the Library of Congress and the WPA. Recording now held by the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. AFS 3096 B2.

1. Farewell, dear friends, I’m bound for to leave you
   Perhaps you’ll miss me when I’m gone.
2. Here’s a ring, love, please accept it
   Oh put it on your finger fair
   And when I’m gone and quite forgotten
   Look on this ring, love, and I’ll be there.
3. Now some will say this boy’s in danger
   And others will say he’s been gone too long
   And others will say it’s some bad action
   Has caused this boy so far from home.
4. I thank the Lord I never did harm you
   Neither did I wish you any harm
   So as it is I’ll freely spend it
   So merry I go marchin’ on.
5. I wish I was a little sparrow
   Or had the wings of a turtle dove
   I’d fly away from the land of sorrow
   And settle down with the girl I love.
6. I’d ask her who she wanted to marry
   Or who it was that she wanted to see
   All in her bosom I would flutter
   All with my little tender wing.
7. But alas I’m not a tiny sparrow
   Nor have I wings of a turtle dove
   So Lord I’ll sit and sing in sorrow
   I’ll weep and pass my troubles by.
8. Farewell, dear friends, I’m bound for to leave you
   Perhaps you’ll miss me when I’m gone.