Come all ye fair and tender ladies Be careful how you court young men They're like a star on a summer's morning They'll first appear and then they're gone
They'll tell you some loving story They'll declare to you their love is true Then they will go and court some other And that's the love they have for you
Do you remember our days of courting When your head lay upon my breast You could make me believe with falling of your arm That the sun rose in the West
I wish I was a little sparrow And I had wings with which to fly Right over to see my false true-lover And when he's talking I'd be nigh
But I'm not a little sparrow I have no wings with which to fly So I sit here in grief and sorrow To weep and pass my troubles by
If I had known before I courted That love was such a killing thing I'd a-locked my heart in a box of golden And fastened it up with a silver pin