Digital Tradition Mirror

Bedmaking

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Bedmaking

Me father he was a good old man
He sent me to service when I was young
But my missus and I, we never could agree
Because that my master he would love me

Me missus she sent me all up aloft
To make up a bed both neat and soft
But me master followed after with a gay gold ring
Saying, Betsy, take this for your bedmaking

Me missus she came upstairs in a haste
And caught masters arms all around me waist
From the top to the bottom she did him fling
Saying, Master, take that for your bedmaking

First in the kitchen and then in the hall
And then in the parlor among the ladies all
And they all asked me where I had been
And I told them, up aloft at the bedmaking

Me missus she turned me all out of doors
She called me a nasty impudent whore
With the weather being wet and my shoes being thin
I wished meself back at the bedmaking

When six months were over and seven months were past
This pretty little maid she grew stout round the waist
She could scarcely lace her stays nor tie her apron string
And twas then that she remembered the bedmaking

When eight months were over and nine months were gone
This pretty little maid bore a lovely young son
She took him to the church and had him christened John
Then she sent him home again to that gay old man

recorded by Frankie Armstrong on Out of Love
  and Martin Carthy on Crown of Horn
SOF

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!