The Wooing- E. W. Harns (MI) c.1860 Gardner A
[From Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, by Gardner and Chickering, version A.
R. Matteson 2017]
"The Wooing" sung in 1934 by Mr. E. W. Harns, Greenville, who learned the song in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, about 1860.
1 "Madam, I have come to marry you
And settle in this town;
My whole estate is worth
Ten thousand pounds.
Which I will will to you,
If you will be my bride."
2 "O that's enough for me,
I don't desire you."
3 "O madam, I have a very fine house,
All neat and rectified,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
4 "I know you have a very fine house
Besides a clever barn,
But you're too old to think to hold
A bird with a single yarn."
5 "O madam, I have a very fine horse,
Whose face is like the tide,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
6 "I know you have a very fine horse,
Which you keep in yonders barn,
But his master likes a glass of wine
For fear his horse might learn."
7 "O madam, I have a very fine field,
Full fifty acres wide,
Which you may have at your command
If you'll but be my bride."
8 "I know you have a very fine field
And a pasture at the foot,
And if I had you, I'd turn you in,
For I'm sure a hog would root."
9 "O madam, you are a scornful dame
And very hard to please,
And when you get old and pinched with cold,
I swear I hope you'll freeze."
10 "And when I get old and pinched with cold,
'Twon't be you'll keep me warm;
I'll be single and be free
And stay as I was born."