Darling mother would you guide my hand My love she's in America with a terry band Her dark-flowing hair rolls all down her breast It's as soft as the night that she went and left Sandy was the river that she walked It was out the door and it was off the dock, The thunder ahead and the steamboat's dreams Of lily-white smoke and fine rafting things. She boarded that ship and she sent it well Fast and lonesome as a kind farewell I asked her grace for twelve little towns With a market in all and open fields around She took the East, and she took the West Elizabeth's the girl that I love the best My house was robbed when I shut the door And boarded it up with a rusted oar. Bring me a rose, St. Therese, St. Therese Would you bring me a rose St. Therese All the little flowers are covered and blessed Would you bring me a rose St. Therese. I saw her at the market just yesterday I said hello but she looked the other way She wore a coat of black and two old shoes And my eyes were light with the devil's dues I gave her a whistle and three hundred cries And there I found a rose as white as lye You can wash with water every day But that dirt will stain your hide in the same old way. Now two little devils danced on a barrel of lime You know they're devils, mama, but you took a bad time It was a slipped-up jig with iron feet That fled like a coward when lovers meet But there in the garden I can see you fine Your hand full of roses smell better than wine To scatter your flowers for the one you love As tender as the lightning in the sky above. Bring me a rose St. Therese, St. Therese Would you bring me a rose St. Therese All the little flowers are covered and blessed Would you bring me that rose St. Therese