| |
| “WHERE have you been this while away, | |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | |
| Out with the rest on a picnic lay. | |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | |
| They called us out of the barrack-yard | 5 |
| To Gawd knows where from Gosport Hard, | |
| And you can’t refuse when you get the card, | |
| And the Widow gives the party. | |
| (Bugle: Ta—rara—ra-ra-rara!) | |
| |
| “What did you get to eat and drink | 10 |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | |
| Standing water as thick as ink, | |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | |
| A bit o’ beef that were three year stored, | |
| A bit o’ mutton as tough as a board, | 15 |
| And a fowl we killed with a sergeant’s sword, | |
| When the Widow give the party. | |
| |
| “What did you do for knives and forks, | |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | |
| We carries ’em with us wherever we walks, | 20 |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | |
| And some was sliced and some was halved, | |
| And some was crimped and some was carved, | |
| And some was gutted and some was starved, | |
| When the Widow give the party. | 25 |
| |
| “What ha’ you done with half your mess, | |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | |
| They could n’t do more and they would n’t do less, | |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | |
| They ate their whack and they drank their fill, | 30 |
| And I think the rations has made them ill, | |
| For half my comp’ny’s lying still | |
| Where the Widow give the party. | |
| |
| “How did you get away—away, | |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | 35 |
| On the broad o’ my back at the end o’ the day, | |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | |
| I comed away like a bleedin’ toff, | |
| For I got four niggers to carry me off, | |
| As I lay in the bight of a canvas trough, | 40 |
| When the Widow give the party. | |
| |
| “What was the end of all the show, | |
| Johnnie, Johnnie?” | |
| Ask my Colonel, for I don’t know, | |
| Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha! | 45 |
| We broke a King and we built a road— | |
| A court-house stands where the reg’ment goed. | |
| And the river’s clean where the raw blood flowed | |
| When the Widow give the party. | |
| (Bugle: Ta—rara—ra-ra-rara!) | 50 |
| |
