The Lover of Fair Elaine Ballad Based On Flue Epidemic of 1917
THE FAIR ELAINE
My mother had an uncle, Hayes,
Who loved the banker's child
Hayes was just a dray man
It made the banker wild
When Hayes proposed to fair Elaine
He asked for her sweet hand
Her father said that he’d agree
If Hayes could buy some land.
So off Hayes went
To make his stake
He traveled night and day
Until he found a growing town
He knew he had to stay
he drove his mule team
train to train
delivered tons of goods
and every day he wrote to her
he’d promised that he would
and once a week he mailed the pack
he sent his seven letters
she saved them all
so comforted that
times were getting better
and in two years
Hayes had the cash
To marry fair Elaine
He hitched his mules
To go for her
And traveled ‘cross the plain
And when he came up to her house
Black wreathes were on her door
He knocked and found his fair Elaine
Was on this earth no more
Hayes went home in sorrow
Took a shotgun from the shelf
He shot his pair of finest mules
And then he shot himself
Copyright © Victoria Anderson-Throop | Year Posted 2012
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