The Foggy Dew

Oh, when I was a bachelor, airy and young

I followed the weaving trade

All the harm that ever I done

Was in courting a fair young maid

I courted her in the summertime

And all through the winter too

And the only thing I ever did wrong

Was keep her from the foggy dew

When I got that tired of living alone

I says to her one day

"I've a nice little cot in my own shack

Where you can safely lay

You'll be all right in the summertime

And all through the winter too

You'll be snug and warm

And you'll take no harm

All out of the foggy dew"

"Well, I don't think much to your old shack

'Cause I will only be

With only your old cypress cat

But to keep me company

With crickets chirruping in the hearth

But whatever can they do?

When the night turns raw and the fire won't draw

To keep me from the foggy dew"

One night, she come to my bedside

When I lay fast asleep

She laid her head in on my breast

And she started in to weep

She wept, she sighed, she welled me nigh

She cries, "What shall I do?

For this night I'm resolved to stay with you

Out of the foggy dew"

"Oh, lie down there, you silly young girl

And wipe away those tears"

Then I hauled a shift up under her head

And I wrapped it round her ears

You were all right in the summertime

And all through the winter too

But I held her tight that little long night

To keep her from the foggy dew

"Oh, lie down there, you silly young girl

And don't you be afraid

If you want to stay with me

You'll have to learn your trade"

She learned all through the summertime

And all through the winter too

And truth to tell, she learned that well

She saved us from the foggy dew

One night, I lay there good as gold