Weary and lame, a boy there came, Up to a farmer's door. "Will you tell me if any there be That will give me employ To plough and sow, and reap and mow, And be a farmer's boy? "My fathers dead, and mothers left, With her five children small, And what is worst for mother still, I'm the oldest of them all: Though little I be yet I fear not work, If you will me employ To plough and sow, and reap and mow, And be a farmer's boy. "And if that you won't me employ, One favour I have to ask, Will you shelter me till break of day, From this cold winter's blast: At break of day, I'll trudge away, Elsewhere to seek employ To plough and sow, and reap and mow, And be a farmer's boy." The mistress said, "Pray take the lad, No farther let him seek;" "O yes, dear father," the daughter cried, While tears ran down her cheeks, "For those that will work it's hard to want, And wander for employ To plough and sow, and reap and mow, And be a farmer's boy." In course of time he grew a man The good old farmer died, And left the boy the farm he had, And his daughter for his bride; The boy that was the farm now has, Oft smiles and thinks with joy, Of the lucky day he came that way, And to be a farmer's boy. TOMMY LINN |_Tommy Linn_ is a _Scotchman_ born, His head is bald, and his beard is shorn, He has a cap made of a hare skin, An elderman is _Tommy Linn,_ _Tommy Linn_ has no boots to put on, But two calves' skins, and the hair it was on, They are open at the side and the water goes in, "Unwholesome boots," says _Tommy Linn_. _Tommy Linn_ has a mare of the gray, Lam'd of all four as I hear say; It has the farcy all over the skin, "It's a running jade," says _Tommy Linn._ _Tommy Linn_ no bridle had to put on, But two mouses' tails that he put on; _Tommy Linn_ had no saddle to put on, But two urchin skins, and them he put on. _Tommy Linn_ went to yonder hall, Went hipping and skipping among them all; They ask'd what made him come so boldly in, "I'm come a wooing," says _Tommy Linn_. _Tommy Linn_ went to the church to be wed, The bride followed after hanging down her head, She hung down her cheeks, she hung down her chin, "This is a glooming quean," says _Tommy Linn_. _Tommy Linn's_ daughter sat on the stairs, "Oh, dear father, gin I be not fair;" The stairs they broke, and she fell in, "You are fair enough now," says Tommy Linn. (_quean_, lass.) _Tommy Linn's_ daughter sat on the brig, "Oh, dear father, gin I be not trig;" The bridge it broke, and she fell in, "You are trig enough now," says _Tommy Linn._ _Tommy Linn_, and his wife and his wife's mother, They all fell into the fire together; They that lay undermost got a hot skin, "We are [hot] enough," says _Tommy Linn_. (_trig_, neat.) THE MERMAID [Illustration: 0298] |On Friday morning as we set sail,