| lyric | I had a first cousin called Arthur Mc Bride,
he and I took a stroll down by the seaside,
Asseking good fortune and what might betide,
’twas just as the day was adawning,
Then after resting we both took a tramp,
We met sergeant Harper and dorporal Cramp,
besides the wee drummmer who beat up for camp,
With his rowdydowdow in the morning.
He says ‘My young fellows, if you will enlist
A Guinea you quickly shall have in your fist
Besides a Crown for to kick up the dust
And drink the King’s health in the morning.’
Had we been such fools as to take the advance
The wee bitter morning we had run to chance
For you’d think it no scruple to send us to France
Where we would be killed in the morning
He says ‘My young fellows, if I hear but one word
I instantly now will out with my sword
And into your bodies as strength will afford
So now, my gay devils take warning.’
But Arthur and I we took in the odds
We gave them no chance to lunge out their swords
Our whacking shillelaghs came over their heads
And paid them right smart in the morning.
As for the wee drummer; we rifled his pouch
And we made a football of his rowdy-dow-dow
And into the ocean to rock and to row
And bade him a tedious returning.
As for the old rapier that hung by his side,
- We flung it as far as we could in the tide,
‘To the devil I bid you’, says Arthur Mc BrIde,
To temper your steel in the morning. |