Many a lassie as ev'ryone knows'll
Try to be married before twenty-five.
So she'll agree to most any proposal.
All he mus' be is a man, an' alive.
I hold a dream an' there's no compromisin'
I know there's one certain laddie for me.
One day he'll come walkin' o'er the horizon:
But should he not, then an old maid I'll be.
Waitin' for my dearie, an' happy am I
to hold my heart till he comes strollin' by.
When he comes, my dearie, one look an' I'll know
That he's the dearie I've been wantin' so.
Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
For my hopes will be high that he'll come strollin' by;
That there's a laddie weary, and wanderin' free,
Who's waitin' for his dearie:
What do ye do while ye're waitin' around
For your lad to come your way?
Well, when no one is lookin', ye kneel on the ground,
An' ye pray an' pray an' pray!
But when lassies sit an' have no men,
Oh, how long becomes the night.
But I fear the night is longer when the lad's no' right.
Waitin' for my dearie is sweeter to me
Than wooin' any laddie on the lea.
Dreamin' of your dearie, an' idlin' the day
That's how I am an' how I'll ever stay.
Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
That there's a laddie weary, an' wanderin' free,
who's waitin' for his dearie: