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GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador
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As I rode out on one airy December,
I heard a poor woman, these words she did say:
I'll never forget but will always remember,
My youth and my pleasure for now it's too late.
Now I did well in my own little cottage,
On weaving and spinning the fair tales of life;
I'm old and I'm poor, boys, my sad lamentation,
With four little children, I'm a drunkard's poor wife.
My poor little children are hungry and naked,
And close by the fireside they flee from the cold;
Their hard-hearted father in some pub is drinking,
Drinking and squandering and spending their gold.
Now what a pleasure it will be at their meeting,
To see these four children to me they will run;
It's not such a pleasure to get such a husband,
And leave you in trouble as he had leaved me.
I pray you now, mother, to consider drinking,
It is now a pleasure for them for their lives;
It's not such a pleasure when they're coldest with liquor,
And leave you forever a drunkard's poor wife.
I pray you, fair maidens, come and take a warning,
When you are single from troubles you're free;
Happy is a maiden who's living contented,
She might have comfort, but there's none for me.
But the fond mother she then bent over her cradle,
These words she did say in a cold, mournful voice:
How cold and hard-hearted is the heart of a drunkard,
And sad is the life of a drunkard's poor wife.