JOHNNY TODD
(learned from A.L.Lloyd album)
Johnny Todd took a notion for to cross the raging sea,
And he left his true love behind him, weeping by the Liverpool sea.
For a week she wept full sorely, tore her hair and wrung her hands;
Then she met with another sailor walking on the Liverpool sands.
Why, fair maid, are you a-weeping, for your Johnny gone to sea?
If you'll wed with me tomorrow I will kind and constant be.
I will buy you sheets and blankets, I'll buy you a wedding ring;
You shall have a gilded cradle for to rock your baby in.
Johnny Todd came back from sailing, sailing on the ocean wide;
And he found his fair and false one was another sailor's bride.
All young men who'd go a-sailing, for to fight the foreign foe:
Don't you leave your love like Johnny; marry her before you go.
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)