Oh when I was a bachelor early and young

I followed the weaving trade

All the harm that ever I done

Was in courtin' a fair young maid

I courted her in the summertime

And all through the winter too

And the only thing I ever did wrong

Was keep her from the foggy dew

Well I got that tired of living alone

I says to her one day

"I've a nice little cod in my old shack

Where you could safely lay

You'll be all right in the summertime

And all through the winter too

You'll be snug and warm and you'll take no harm

All out of the foggy dew "

"Well I don't think much to your old shack

As I will lonely be

With only your old Cyprus cat

For to keep me company

With crickets chirping in the hearth

But whatever can they do

When the night turns raw and the fire won't draw

To keep me from the foggy dew "

One night she come to my bedside

When I lay fast asleep

She laid her head down on my breast

And she started in to weep

She wept she sighed she well near died

She cries "What shall I do

For this night I'm resolved to stay with you

Without of the foggy dew "

"Oh lie down there you silly young girl

And wipe away those tears "

Then I hauled her shift up over her head

And I wrapped it round her ears

We were all right in the summertime

And all through the winter too

But I held her tight that livelong night

To keep her from the foggy dew

"Oh lie down there you silly young girl

And don't you be afraid

If you want to stay with me

You have to learn your trade "

She learned all through the summertime

And all through the winter too

And truth to tell she learned that well

She saved us from the foggy dew

One night I laid there good as gold

When she starts unto me

Says "I've got a pain in below my back

Where no pain ought to be

I was all right in the summertime

And all through the winter too

But I take some ill or a kind of a chill

On account of the foggy dew "

That night she started to moan and cry

Says I "What's up with you "

Says she "I never should have been this way

If it haven't been for you "

I put my boots and my trousers on

And I ran for my neighbour too

Do what we could we couldn't do no good

And she died in the foggy dew

I'm a bachelor now and I live with my son

And we work at the weaving trade

Each time I look in his eyes I see

The eyes of that fair young maid

Reminding me of the summertime

And of the winter too

And of the many times I rolled in her arms

All over the foggy dew