As I roved out on a fine summer's morning
Down by a clear river I walked all alone.
I heard a poor man making sad lamentation
And thus he began to make his sad moan.
Chorus:
It makes me cry, hush-a-bye baby lie easy
For perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
Though I'm not your daddy, my wife is your mammy
I'm nursing a child that is none of my own.
It's every day she walks with her bully,
And leaves me the cradle to rock all alone.
This innocent babe, he calls me his daddy,
It's little he knows that he's none of my own.
Chorus:
It makes me cry, hush-a-bye baby lie easy
For perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
Though I'm not your daddy, my wife is your mammy
I'm nursing a child that is none of my own.
My wife she comes in, in the heel of the evening,
Crying, You old rogue is the tea-kettle on ?
She sits to her table and to her tea-drinking.
She cries, You old cuckold come rock the child sound.
Chorus:
It makes me cry, hush-a-bye baby lie easy
For perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
Though I'm not your daddy, my wife is your mammy
I'm nursing a child that is none of my own.
When first I met with your inconstant mother,
I thought I was happy and blessed with a wife.
Now to my sorrow, sad grief and vexation,
She's proved both the curse and the plague of my life.
Chorus:
It makes me cry, hush-a-bye baby lie easy
For perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
Though I'm not your daddy, my wife is your mammy
I'm nursing a child that is none of my own.
Now all you young fellows who someday may marry,
Just take my advice and leave women alone.
For, by the lord Harry, if ever you marry,
They'll give you a baby that's none of your own.
Chorus:
It makes me cry, hush-a-bye baby lie easy
For perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
Though I'm not your daddy, my wife is your mammy
I'm nursing a child that is none of my own.