| |
| IF you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, | |
| Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street | |
| Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie. | |
| Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! | |
| Five and twenty ponies, | 5 |
| Trotting through the dark— | |
| Brandy for the Parson, | |
| ’Baccy for the Clerk; | |
| Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, | |
| And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! | 10 |
| |
| Running round the woodlump if you chance to find | |
| Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine, | |
| Don’t you shout to come and look, nor use ’em for your play. | |
| Put the brishwood back again—and they’ll be gone next day! | |
| |
| If you see the stable-door setting open wide; | 15 |
| If you see a tired horse lying down inside; | |
| If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore; | |
| If the lining’s wet and warm—don’t you ask no more! | |
| |
| If you meet King George’s men, dressed in blue and red, | |
| You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said. | 20 |
| If they call you “pretty maid,” and chuck you ’neath the chin, | |
| Don’t you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one’s been! | |
| |
| Knocks and footsteps round the house—whistles after dark— | |
| You’ve no call for running out till the house-dogs bark. | |
| Trusty’s here, and Pincher’s here, and see how dumb they lie— | 25 |
| They don’t fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by! | |
| |
| If you do as you’ve been told, ’likely there’s a chance, | |
| You’ll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France, | |
| With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood— | |
| A present from the Gentlemen, along o’ being good! | 30 |
| Five and twenty ponies, | |
| Trotting through the dark— | |
| Brandy for the Parson, | |
| ’Baccy for the Clerk. | |
| Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie— | 35 |
| Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! | |
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