The new wine scratches as it slips the throat,
The new flag is so bright by the old boat.
Ern was her man to buy her bread and meat,
Half of his weekly wage was hers to spend,
She used to mock 'How is your wife, my sweet?'
Or wail, 'O, Ernie, how is this to end?'
Or coo, 'My Ernie is without a friend,
She cannot understand my precious life,'
And Ernie would go home and beat his wife.
So the four souls are ranged, the chess-board set,