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20 BALLAD OF MISS SALLY Miss Sally lay on her cornshuck bed, Old and alone and poor, In her tumbled shack on the Buck Thorn hill, With dirt for its kitchen floor. Miss Sally lay on her cornshuck bed. She was dying of gangrene; For she’d broke her hip, and she’d crawled to bed, And the neighbors had not seen. The neighbors came, and they found her there, And they called Relief in town; Relief-man came to Miss Sally’s house And his money blank laid down. “Sign your papers?” Miss Sally laughed, “I’ve silver to do and more; A hundred thousand my father left, And it’s hid in the kitchen floor.” The neighbors came, and they called Relief, And after the things they said— The health nurse came with her laundry sheets To put on Miss Sally’s bed. “Keep your sheets for I have my own— And all of the linen fair: Forty sheets in my mother’s press, And it’s locked in the corner there.” 21 The neighbors came with their gifts of food. “Plenty I keep myself, Bread and honey and golden cream, All hid on my cupboard shelf.” The doctor came to Miss Sally’s house, For he knew Relief would pay. “Cures I mix in my old black pot, And I’ll walk at the dawn of day.” ...

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