X: 1
T:Poor Man, The
S:Digital Tradition, poorman
B:From Contentment, Douglas.
Z:dt:poorman
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
W:O poor man, O poor man come tell unto me true;
W:How you maintain your family and how you carry them through;
W:How you maintain your family when most of them are small,
W:And nothing but your labour to maintain then all.
W:
W:'Tis sometimes I do reap and sometimes I do sow,
W:Sometimes hedging, sometimes ditching, such work I often do;
W:There's nothing comes amiss to me, I harrow and I plow,
W:I maintain my family by sweat of my brow.
W:
W:Early in the morning, l'm always of good cheer,
W:With a flail in my hand and a bottle of good beer;
W:A flail in my hand and a bottle of good beer,
W:I live as happy as those worth ten thousand a year.
W:
W:My wife she's always willing to hall [sic] in the yoke,
W:We live like lambs together, and we never do provoke;
W:Altho' it may be possible that we do now live poor,
W:Yet we can feed the beggars that come to our door.
W:
W:When I come home at nignt, su weary then I be,
W:Then I take up my youngest child and dance it on my knee,
W:The rest all come around me and make a prattling noise,
W:And this is all the comfort [a] poor man enjoys,
W:
W:This nobleman hearing what this poor man did say,
W:He invited him to dine with him the very next day,
W:He invited him his wife and children all to bring,
W:And in token of favor he gave him a ring,
W:
W:Quite early the next morning, this poor man arose,
W:And dress'd up all his children in the finest of their cloaths
W:Then the poor man and his wife and his seven children small
W:They all went to dine at this nobleman's hall, '
W:
W:And then after dinner he soon did let him know,
W:What into this poor man's hands he had then to bestow;
W:'Twas forty or fifty good acres of his land,
W:He gave him in writing and sign'd his own hand,
W:
W:Saying on this you may live happy all your life,
W:Therefore I do entreat you to be kind to your wife;
W:Be kind unto your wife and children all around,
W:There's few of those noblemen that are to be found.
K:G
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