Plump was Annie, plump and pretty, with a cheek as white as snow;
He was anything but handsome was the Magpie’s ostler, Joe.
But he won the winsome lassie. They’d a cottage and a cow,
And her matronhood sat lightly on the village beauty’s brow.
Sped the months and came a baby—such a blue-eyed baby boy!
Joe was working in the stables when they told him of his joy.
He was rubbing down the horses, and he gave them then and there
All a special feed of clover, just in honour of the heir:
It had been his great ambition, and he told the horses so,
That the Fates would send a baby who might bear the name of Joe.