Sailor, Sailor —

“Sailor, Sailor, why did you go - Why did you go for a sailor? Why didn’t you choose to cobble folk’s shoes, Or live at your ease as a tailor?” “I stayed out all night at Michaelmas fair And blowed my week’s wages on the roundabouts there, And I knew my old dad ‘ud be waiting for me With a face like a foot and his belt on his knee, And I thinks, thinks I, ’Well it can’t be as bad To run off to sea as be belted by Dad’ - And that’s why I went for a sailor - a sailor - That’s why I went for a sailor.” “Sailor, Sailor, why did you go - Why did you go for a sailor? Why didn’t you learn good money to earn As a beer or a whisky retailer?” “I wheeled a wheelbarrow when I was a boy In and out o’ the cowshed where I got employ; I wheeled it and wheeled it from morning to night, And sometimes ‘twas heavy and sometimes ‘twas light; I wheeled it six months and I’m willing to bet That if I’d stayed there I’d be wheeling it yet - And that’s why I went for a sailor.” “Sailor, Sailor, why did you go - Why did you go for a sailor? Why aren’t you a star of Bench or of Bar A judge, a K.C., or a jailor?” “I courted a girl and she gave me the chuck; I thought my poor heart was most certainly bruk; So I went to the docks, for I thought it was better To travel the world round and try to forget her. We were bound out to Sidney, and - well, to be candid I was courting another as soon as we landed - But that’s why I went for a sailor.” “Sailor, Sailor, why did you go - Why did you go for a sailor?' “Why does the earth keep on turning around? Why do the trees have their roots underground? Why does the sun rise - and what makes it set? Why is the snow cold, and why is the rain wet? Why do the rivers run down to the sea? Answer me these things - and after ask me To tell why I went for a sailor - a sailor - The reason I went for a sailor.'