To make your candles last for aye,
You wives and maids give ear O!
To put 'em out's the only way,
Says honest John Boldero.
I doubt, I doubt,
My fire is out,
My little dame an't at home;
Come, bridle my hog,
And saddle my dog,
And fetch my little dame home.
Hark, hark, the dogs do bark,
Beggars are coming to town;
Some in jags, and some in rags,
And some in velvet gowns.
When I was a batchelor,
I lived by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I had
I laid upon a shelf;
The rats and the mice they made such a strife,
I was forc'd to go to London to buy me a wife;
The roads were so bad, and the lanes were so narrow,
I was forc'd to bring my wife home in a wheel-barrow:
The wheel-barrow broke, and my wife got a fall,
Deuce take the wheel-barrow, wife, and all.
Taffy was a Welchman,
Taffy was a thief;
Taffy came to my house,
And stole a piece of beef:
I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy wasn't at home,
Taffy came to my house,
And stole a marrow-bone.