Two Sisters

two young sisters are walking alone

by the pale muddy waters

two young sisters are walking alone

by the pale muddy waters of Onion town

when one of them pushed the younger in

into the cold rain waters

pushed her sister and watched her drown

in the cold muddy froth on the river

and she floated up and she floated down

to pale she was as the water

floated down till she washed down shore

on the pale muddy banks of Onion town

with wolves by night and the sun by day

nothing was left but bones and hair

bones and hair which are both more fair

than the pale muddy banks of the river

Luke, his son was deaf in rain

carried her home, her tiny frame

father father I hear her cry

"how can that be?" he said, "bones don't cry" he said

besides you're deaf

but he thought there must be something to these bones

so he made a fiddle out of her breast bone

made some pegs out of her finger bone

made a bow out of her leg bone

and from her yellow hair he strum

the strings that would have her story sung

and sometime later...

one old woman was walking alone

by the pale muddy waters

she heard the strings of the sweet fiddle cry

"Cruel sister, why have you drowned me?"

upon her rock the deaf boy played

oh the bows of Onion

and into the water the cruel sister ran

but she sank just like any old stone