Meet Me By the Moonlight

I am going to leave you tomorrow,
To sail on the ocean so blue;
To leave all my friends and relations,
I have come now to bid you adieu.

Then meet me by the moonlight, love, meet me,
I want to see you alone;
To tell of the heart that is breaking,
To leave my love and my home.

I hate to leave you, my darling,
But my parents to me are unkind;
To prove the words false that are spoken,
Has never once entered my mind.

I have a fine ship on the ocean,
All lined with silver and gold.
And before my lover shall perish,
I'll have the ship anchored and sold.

I have come by the moonlight to see you,
To tell of my future time;
I am going to seek for a fortune,
Will return and claim you as mine.

"Your return to me is uncertain,
But to you I will always prove true;
God grant you may have a safe voyage,
And our days apart may be few!"

"I know that Heaven will bless us,
And the angels will guide you aright;
To help you return to your loved one,
Though her heart is breaking tonight."

Years passed, and she proved to him faithful,
To another she never was wed.
And her life it seemed blighted forever,
When she heard that her true love was dead.

From Ethel Park Richardson- American Mountain Songs (1927)
Variant on Prisoners Song,New Jail etc.
RG