WHEN I was a bachelor, I lived all by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I got I put upon the shelf.
The rats and the mice they made such a strife,

I was forced to go to Boston to buy me a wife.

The roads were so bad, and the lanes were so narrow,

I was forced to bring my wife home in a wheel-barrow.

The wheel-barrow broke, and my wife had a fall,
And down came wheel-barrow, wife, and all.

YOU shall have an apple,

'You shall have a plum, You shall have a rattle-basket,

When your dad comes home.

What naughty tricks they put upon me? They broke my pitcher, and spilt my water; And huff'd my mother, and chid her daughter; And kissed my sister instead of me.