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Tripping up the green grass, dusty, dusty day;
Come, all ye pretty fair maids, come and with me play;
You shall have a duck, my dear, and you shall have a swan,
And you shall have a nice young man a-waiting for to come.

Suppose he were to die, and leave his wife a widow?
Come all ye pretty fair maids, come clap your hands together.

(Spoken) Will You come? No

Naughty man! he won't come out,
he won't come out, he won't come out!
Naughty man! he won't come out
to help us with our dancing.

(Spoken) Will You come? Yes!

Now we've got our bonny lad, our bonny lad, our bonny lad,
Now we've got our bonny lad to help us with our dancing.

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Source: Lucy Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland. 1893, English County Songs, Leadenhall Press, London

Notes:
From Middlesex. "From an old servant in Miss Margaret Collyer's family."

Lucy Broadwood wrote:

The tune is the regular formula for games of this kind, but its second part seems to be a reflection of "Malbrook". Interesting variants of the words are to be found in Chamber's "Popular Rhymes of Scotland", Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of Scotland etc.


Roud: 1381 (Search Roud index at VWML)
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