I’ll travel ten thousand year.
I’ll ramble and I’ll rove and I’ll call upon my God.
They may all say what they will,
Resolv’d as I am so long as I live,
For to be a rover still.
Further stanzas are made merely by the substitution of “mother” etc. for “father”. The song, tune and words, was probably parodied from ‘Seven Long Years’. See Sharp, ii., 79. From the latter song I quote the second stanza.
I have a good old father at home,
And I’ve cost him many a pound,
And now to make amends for this,
I’ll travel the whole world round.