When, weary and lame, a boy there came

Up to a Farmer’s door,—

Saying, can you tell me, if any there be,

Can give to me employ,

For to plow, for to mow, for to reap, for to sow,

For to be a Farmer’s Boy.

My father is dead, my mother is left

With her five children small,

And what is worse, for mother still,

I’m the eldest of them all;