Sukey and the Mermaid: with audio recording

Storyteller say,
This happened oncet upon a time,
on a little island off the coast
of South Carolina.
A girl named Sukey lived with her ma and new step-pa. Sukey called her step-pa "Mister Hard-Times." Every day, while he watched, she hoed the weeds in the garden and every day, she sang:
Mister Hard-Times,
Since you come
My ma don't like me,
My work never done.
But one morning, when her step-pa wasn't looking, Sukey ran away to her secret hiding place by the s…