Chorus:
And it's home boys, home!
Home I'd like to be, home for a while, in me own country
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny elm tree
Are all a-growin' green in me own country
There was an apprentice lived in Strawberry lane
Loved by her master and her mistress the same
Until I a sailor lad came sailing o'er the sea
And that was the beginnin' of her misery
(Chorus)
The maid being innocent she thought it was no harm
To go into bed for to keep her back warm
He hugged her and he kissed her and he called her his dear
Said, "I wish me love this night it was as long as a year"
(Chorus)
'Twas early next morning the sailor lad arose
And into her apron he put handfuls of gold
"Take this me dear for the mischief that I've done,
Last night I may have left you with a daughter or a son"
(Chorus)
"And if you have a girl child then dance her on your knee
And if you have a male child well call him after me
And when he is a man you can dress him up in blue
And he'll go skipping up the rigging like his daddy used to do"
(Chorus)
So come on all ye lassies, a warning take by me
And never let a sailor lad an inch above your knee
For once I met a sailor lad and he beguiled me
And he left me with a pair of twins to dandle on me knee
(Chorus)