For some one, passing my cabin, she'd heard, had lately found

Rather a sleek an' han'some young fellow hanging round;

Of course it was a brother, or somethin' of that sort?

I told her 'twas a brother, and cut my supper short.

"Which same was wrong, as viewed through a strictly moral eye;

But who, to shield his wife's name, wouldn't sometime tell a lie?

'Twas nothing but a lie, girl, and for a lie 'twas meant:

If brothers sold at a million, she couldn't ha' raised a cent.

"Home I trudged in a hurry—who could that fellow be?

Home I trudged in a hurry, bound that I would see;