Watercresses

I met a brisk young damsel come tripping down this way,
Her voice had been the clearest that ever I did hear;
She had a bunch of early onions and a half a pint of beer,
Some pickles and a bunch of watercresses.

I boldly steppèd to her and this to her did say,
"I'm on my way for Cumberland can you instruct the way?"
"Oh yes, sir, oh yes, sir," she speedily did say,
"Take a turn at your left and go down the other way."

I bowed and thanked her as I walked by her side,
And oftentimes I wished that she was my lawful bride,
Where I popped to her the question half in earnest, half in joke,
And those very words now unto her I spoke:

"I got cows, I got sheep, I got pigs, I got geeses,
Besides I have a dairy full of butter-milk and cheeses;
If you'll consent to Missus, now, fair lady of all eases,
We'll spend out time in love and watercresses."

"Since you are so generous, young man," now she did say,
"Prepare the matrimony and I'll appoint the day;
I've a wedding dress to buy and some little bills to pay."
He pulled out a sovereign her debts for to defray.

Early the next morning a letter I received:
'Kind sir, for disappointing you now I will 'pologize,
But when you ask a partner in a partnership for life,
Be sure to choose a maiden or a widow, not a wife.

'I've a husband of my own and his name is William Gray,
When I can well afford it your sovereign back I'll pay,
For to think that I would marry you all on the first of May,
Sure you must have been greener than watercresses.'

####.... Author unknown. Variant of an early 19th century British broadside ballad, Water Cresses, published by H. Such (London) sometime between 1863 and 1885, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Firth C.13(198) ....####

This variant was collected in 1958 from Everett Bennett of St. Paul's, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.320-321, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved. Another variant was collected by MacEdward Leach, and published as #66, Water Creases in Folk Ballads And Songs Of The Lower Labrador Coast by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.