32. I Know My Love

I KNOW my Love by his way of walking,

And I know my love by his way of talking,

And I know my love dressed in a suit of blue,

And if my Love leaves me, what will I do?

And still she cried, “I love him the best,

And a troubled mind, sure, can know no rest,”

And still she cried, “Bonny boys are few,

And if my Love leaves me, what will I do?”

There is a dance house in Mar’dyke,

And there my true love goes every night;

He takes a strange one upon his knee,

And don’t you think, now, that vexes me?

And still she cried, “I love him the best,

And a troubled mind, sure, can know no rest,”

And still she cried, “Bonny boys are few,

And if my Love leaves me, what will I do?”

If my Love knew I could wash and wring,

If my Love knew I could weave and spin,

I would make a dress all of the finest kind,

But the want of money, sure, leaves me behind.

And still she cried, “I love him the best,

And a troubled mind, sure, can know no rest,”

And still she cried, “Bonny boys are few,

And if my Love leaves me, what will I do?”

I know my Love is an arrant rover,

I know he’ll wander the wide world over,

In dear old Ireland he’ll no longer tarry,

And an English one he is sure to marry.

And still she cried, “I love him the best,

And a troubled mind, sure, can know no rest,”

And still she cried, “Bonny boys are few,

And if my Love leaves me, what will I do?”