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SPRINGFIELD MOUNTAIN (I)

(learned in the late 1960s;
.the true story of the death of Lieutenant Timothy Myrick in 1761 from snakebite)

(music to go here)

In Springfield Mountain there did dwell
A lovely youth I knew full well
Lieutenant Myrick's only son,
A likely lad of twenty-one.

One early morn this lad did go
Down to the meadow for to mow
He scarce had mowed twice round the field
When a poison serpent bit his heel.

Soon as he felt that deadly wound
He threw his scythe upon the ground
Straightway for home was his intent
And crying loudly as he went.

The neighbors near his voice did hear,
But none to him did then appear
Thinking for workmen he did call,
And so alone this lad did fall.

His careworn father as he went
Seeking his son was his intent
And soon his only son he found
Cold as a stone upon the ground.

In seventeen hundred and sixty-one
This fearful accident was done
Let it be warning unto all
To be prepared when God doth call.

(from miriam berg's folksong collection)