Cold and raw the north did blow
Bleak in the morning early
All the trees were hid in snow
Daggled by winter yearly
A gentleman riding over the hill
Met with a farmer's daughter
Her rosy cheeks and her bonny brow
They made his mouth to water
Quickly he saluted me
Meaning to show his breeding
I bowed to him right gracefully
His courtesy exceeding
He asked me where I went so soon
And longed to begin a folly
I told him to the next market town
I purposed to sell my barley
"In this purse," sweet girl, says he
"Twenty pounds lie fairly
Seek no further one to buy
For I'll take all your barley
"Twenty more would by delight
Your body I love so dearly
If you would lay with me all night
And go home in the morning early."
"If twenty pounds could buy the globe
It's this and ne'er the deuce, sir
Nor were my kin as poor as Job
I would not raise 'em so, sir
If I lay with you this night
We'd get a young child together
Then you'd be gone ere the nine months ended
Where should I find a father?"
He told me he had married been
Fourteen years or longer
Or else he'd take me for his own
And tie the knot much stronger
I bade him then no further roam
But manage his wedlock fairly
And keep his gold for his wife at home
And some other should I mean folly
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