Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/177

Rh He lived among a working clan
 * (A wife he hadn't got at all),

A decent, steady, sober man—
 * No saint, however—not at all.

He smoked, but in a modest way,
 * Because he thought he needed it;

He drank a pot of beer a day,
 * And sometimes he exceeded it.

At times he'd pass with other men
 * A loud convivial night or two,

With, very likely, now and then,
 * On Saturdays, a fight or two.

But still he was a sober soul,
 * A labour-never-shirking man,

Who paid his way—upon the whole
 * A decent English working-man.

One day, when at the Nelson's Head,
 * (For which he may be blamed of you)

A holy man appeared and said,
 * "Oh,, I'm ashamed of you."