Pretty Saro 3 Pretty Saro, pretty Saro, I love you, I know, I love you so dealy I never can show. On the banks of old Cowie, on the banks of said brow, I loved you dearly, and I love you still now. Down in some lonely valley, in some lonely place, I hear small birds singing their notes to increas. I makes me think of pretty Saro, her ways were so complete . . . . . . . . It's not this long journey that troubles my mind, NOr the country I'm leaving behind. My true love won't have me, so I understand; She wants a freeholder, and I have no land. Whenever I get tired I set down and weep And think of pretty Saro wherever I be. Here is the second text from the Frank C Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. The book suggests that that the odd line "banks of said brow" might be a corruption of the line in verse 9 of the other version which has "the mountain's sad brow" RR apr00
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!