| O, once I was a waterman
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| And lived at home at ease,
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| And now I am a mariner
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| And plough the angry seas.
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| I thought I’d like seafaring life,
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| So bid my love adieu,
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| And shipp’d as cook and steward boys,
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| On board the Kangaroo.
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| My love she was no foolish girl,
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| Her age it was two score,
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| My love was not a spinster,
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| She’d been married twice before;
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| And they could not say it was her wealth
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| That stole my heart away.
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| For she was a laundry starcher
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| At three-and-six a day.
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| Oh think of me! |
| Oh think of me!
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| She mournfully did say,
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| When you are in a foreign land,
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| Three thousand miles away;
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| And take this lucky farthing,
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| 'Twill make you bear in mind
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| The loving, faithful, trusting heart
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| You leave in tears behind.
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| Cheer up! |
| Cheer up! |
| my own true love,
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| Don’t weep so bitterly,
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| But she sobbed and sighed and choked
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| And cried and couldn’t say goodbye.
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| I won’t be gone so very long,
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| Maybe a month or two,
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| And when I do come back again,
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| Of course I’ll marry you.
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| Our vessel it was homeward bound
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| From many a foreign shore.
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| And many a foreign present
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| Unto my love I bore;
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| There were tortoises from Teneriffe
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| And toys from Timbuctoo,
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| A Chinese rat and a Bengal cat
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| And a Bombay cockatoo.
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| Paid off, I sought her dwelling
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| In the suburbs of the town,
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| An ancient dame upon a line
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| Was hanging out a gown.
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| Where is my love? |
| She’s married, sir,
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| About six months ago,
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| To a man who drives a hardware van
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| For Johnny Fox and Co.
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| Farewell to Dixon’s soap suds
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| From the famous brand called Crown,
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| To Reckitt’s Blue, well known to you,
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| And Crean’s Scouring Brown;
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| I’ll seek some far and distant clime,
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| I can no longer stay,
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| For my heart is now so shattered
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| I must live on China tay. |