Fly Leaves — Ballad

BALLAD.

THE auld wife sat at her ivied door, (_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) A thing she had frequently done before;

And her spectacles lay on her apron’d knees.

The piper he piped on the hill-top high, (_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) Till the cow said “I die,” and the goose ask’d “Why?

” And the dog said nothing, but search’d for fleas.

The farmer he strode through the square farmyard;

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) His last brew of ale was a trifle hard— The connexion of which with the plot one sees.

The farmer’s daughter hath frank blue eyes;

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) She hears the rooks caw in the windy skies, As she sits at her lattice and shells her peas.

The farmer’s daughter hath ripe red lips;

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) If you try to approach her, away she skips Over tables and chairs with apparent ease.

The farmer’s daughter hath soft brown hair;

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) And I met with a ballad, I can’t say where, Which wholly consisted of lines like these.

PART II.

She sat with her hands ’neath her dimpled cheeks, (_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) And spake not a word.

While a lady speaks There is hope, but she didn’t even sneeze.

She sat, with her hands ’neath her crimson cheeks;

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) She gave up mending her father’s breeks, And let the cat roll in her new chemise.

She sat, with her hands ’neath her burning cheeks, (_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) And gazed at the piper for thirteen weeks;

Then she follow’d him out o’er the misty leas.

Her sheep follow’d her, as their tails did them.

(_Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese_) And this song is consider’d a perfect gem, And as to the meaning, it’s what you please.