The Farmer's Daughter:
A Song

Cold and raw the north did blow,
Bleak in the Morning early;
All the trees were hid in snow,
Dagl'd by Winter yearly:
When come riding over a knough,
I met with a farmer's daughter;
Rosie cheeks and a bonny brow,
Good faith made my mouth to water.

Down I vail'd my bonnet low,
Meaning to shew my breeding;
She return'd a graceful bow,
A visage far exceeding:
I ask'd her where she went so soon,
And long'd to begin a parly;
She told me unto the next market town,
A purpose to sell her barley.

In this purse, sweet soul, said I,
Twenty pounds lie fairly;
Seek no farther one to buy,
For I'se take all thy barley:
Twenty more shall buy delight,
Thy person I love so dearly;
If thou would stay with me all night,
And go home in the morning early.

If twenty pounds could by the globe,
Quoth she, this I'd not do, sir;
Or were my kin as poor as Job,
I wo'd not raise them so, sir:
For should I be to night your friend,
We'st get a young kid together;
And you'd be gone ere the nine months end,
And where should I find a father?

I told her I had wedded been,
Fourteen years and longer;
Or else I choose her as my Queen,
And tie the knot much stronger:
She bid me then no farther rome,
But manage my wedlock fairly;
And keep purse for poor spouse at home,
For some other shall have her barley.