Country Sentiment

TRUE JOHNNY.

     Johnny, sweetheart, can you be true
     To all those famous vows you've made,
     Will you love me as I love you
     Until we both in earth are laid?
     Or shall the old wives nod and say
     His love was only for a day:
       The mood goes by,
       His fancies fly,
     And Mary's left to sigh.

     Mary, alas, you've hit the truth,
     And I with grief can but admit
     Hot-blooded haste controls my youth,
     My idle fancies veer and flit
     From flower to flower, from tree to tree,
     And when the moment catches me,
       Oh, love goes by
       Away I fly
     And leave my girl to sigh.

     Could you but now foretell the day,
     Johnny, when this sad thing must be,
     When light and gay you'll turn away
     And laugh and break the heart in me?
     For like a nut for true love's sake
     My empty heart shall crack and break,
       When fancies fly
       And love goes by
     And Mary's left to die.

     When the sun turns against the clock,
     When Avon waters upward flow,
     When eggs are laid by barn-door cock,
     When dusty hens do strut and crow,
     When up is down, when left is right,
     Oh, then I'll break the troth I plight,
       With careless eye
       Away I'll fly
     And Mary here shall die.