BEFORE YOU GET MARRIED
Now girls before you get married, I pray you look 'fore you leap
For fear of a fool or a slove like me you should happen to get;
If he's either the one or the other he's just like the lad I have got
And for fear that you say that I love him I'll give him the name of Watch Pot.
He sits still at home by my elbow for work he does not want to do;
He keeps in each hole and each corner, I can hide nothing out of his view;
He watches the bit that I swallow, he is worse than a rat-catcher's dog,
He turns up the plates and the dishes and roots about just like a hog.
If for stirrabout he takes a liking he is sure to put on the meal,
And for every three quarts he will thicken to eat a pint raw he won't fail,
Saying, "Leave out my supper a-cooling, put milk on the pot, and be quick,"
For shortly I mean for to scrape it, when I am done licking the stick.
One night we had bacon and cabbage, but little of that was my share,
For whilst he kept bolting it in hims all the time in my face he did stare,
Saying, "Why didn't you boil some more bacon? There isn't enough here for two,
But I'll leave you some of the cabbage, I think it is better for you
And then when he'd crammed up his maw-bag, "Make my bed now, and I'll take a sleep.
And when you have finished the dishes you can throw yourself in at my feet."
And it's there he will snore for four hours, and when he first opens his eyes
He will call out for some more to gobble, "I'm murdered with hunger" he cries.
Now to conclude and to finish these verses that I have penned down,
Beware all young girls lest you marry some doting old big-stomached clown,
But marry some handsome young fellow if he hasn't a penny to pay,
That will comfort you heart in the morning and work for you all through the day.