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Navvy Boots

England, widespread.


    A-digging and a-picking as I was one day,
    The thought of my true love it led me astray.
    The day it was gone and the night coming on,
    And I hit for the road with my navvy boots on.

    I knocked at my love's window, my knock she did know,
    And out of her slumber she wakened so slow.
    I knocked there again and she said, Is that John ?
    Yes indeed, it's me, with my navvy boots on.

    She opened the door and invited me in.
    Draw up to the fire and warm your skin.
    The bedroom door was open and the blankets turned down,
    And I rolled into bed with my navvy boots on.

    Then early next morning at the dawn of the day,
    Says I to my true love, It's time to go away.
    Sleep down, sleep down, you know you've done wrong
    For to sleep here all night with your navvy boots on.

    O I bent down my head with a laugh and a smile,
    Saying, What could I do, love, in that length of time ?
    For all that I've done, it was just a bit of fun,
    And I'll do it again with my navvy boots on.

    Then six months being over, and seven after this,
    This pretty fair maid grew stout around the waist.
    Then eight months being over, and nine comes along,
    And she handed me a son with his navvy boots on.

    Come all you pretty fair maids, take heed what I have said.
    Don't ever let a navvy come into your bed,
    For their hearts do run light, and their minds do run young,
    Sure, they'll jump on your bones with their navvy boots on.

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