YOUNG CHARLOTTE (FROZEN GIRL)



Young Charlotte lived by the mountainside

in a cold and dreary spot

No other dwelling for miles around, except her father's cot

And yet, on many a winter's eve, young swains would gather there

For her father kept a social board and she was very fair



Her father loved to see her dressed prim as a city belle

She was the only child he had and he loved his daughter well

In a village some fifteen miles off there's a merry ball tonight

Though the driving wind is cold as death

their hearts were free and light

And yet how beams those sparkling eyes

as the well-known sound she hears

And dashing up to her father's door,

young Charles and his sleigh appears

"Oh, daughter dear," her mother says, "

those blankets round you fold

For it is a dreadful night to ride

and you'll catch your death of cold"



"Oh nay, oh nay," young Charlotte said,

and she laughed like a gypsy queen

"To ride with blankets muffled up one never would be seen"

Her gloves and bonnet being on, she stepped into the sleigh

And away they rode by the mountain side

and it's o'er the hills and away

There's music in those merry bells as o'er the hills we go

What a creaking noise those runners make

as they strike the frozen snow

And muffled faces silent are as the first five miles are passed

When Charles with few and shivering words

the silence broke at last



"What a dreadful night it is to ride. My lines I scarce can hold"

When she replied in a feeble voice, "I am extremely cold"

Charles cracked his whip and urged his team

far faster than before

Until at length five other miles in silence were passed o'er



"Charlotte, how fast the freezing ice is gathering on my brow"

When she replied in a feeble voice, "I'm getting warmer now"

And away they ride by the mountain side

beneath the cold starlight

Until at length the village inn and the ballroom are in sight

When they drove up, Charles he got out and offered her his hand

"Why sit you there like a monument that hath no power to stand?"

He asked her once, he asked her twice

but she answered not a word

He offered her his hand again, but still she never stirred



He took her hand into his own, twas cold as any stone

He tore the veil from off her face

and the cold stars on her shone

And quick into the lighted hall her lifeless form he bore

Fair Charlotte was a frozen corpse

and a word she ne'er spoke more

He took her back into the sleigh and quickly hurried home

And when he came to her father's door

oh how her parents moaned

They mourned the loss of their daughter dear

while Charles wept o'er their gloom

Until at length, Charles died of grief

and they both lay in one tomb



@death @weather @ballad @vanity @clothes @tearjerker

sung by Margaret MacArthur

printed in Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin

may be based on an incident in February 1840

filename[ YNGCHARL

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