This is her son Jack,
A smart-looking lad;
He is not very good,
Nor yet very bad.
She sent him to market,
A live goose he bought.
“Here, mother,” says he,
“It will not go for nought.”
Jack’s goose and her gander
Grew very fond,
They’d both eat together,
Or swim in one pond.
Jack found one morning,
As I have been told,
His goose had laid him
An egg of pure gold.
Jack rode to his mother,
The news for to tell;
She call’d him a good boy,
And said it was well.
Jack sold his gold egg
To a rogue of a Jew,
Who cheated him out of
The half of his due.
Then Jack went a-courting
A lady so gay,
As fair as the Lily,
And sweet as the May.
The Jew and the Squire
Came close at his back,
And began to belabor
The sides of poor Jack.
And then the gold egg
Was thrown into the sea,
But Jack he jump’d in,
And got it back presently.
The Jew got the goose,
Which he vow’d he’d kill,
Resolving at once
His pockets to fill.