The Navvy Boy

When I was young and tender
I left my native home
And often to old Scotland
I started out to roam.
As I walked down through Bishoptown
A-seeking for employ,
The ganger he knew by me
I was a Navvy Boy.

As soon as I did get employ,
For Lodgings I did seek;
It happened to be that very night
With the ganger I did sleep;
He had one only daughter
And I became her joy,
For she longed to go and tramp
With her own dear Navvy boy

Says the mother to her daughter
"I think it very strange,
That you would wed a Navvy Boy
This wide world for to range;
For navvies they are rambling boys
And have but little pay;
How could a man maintain a wife
With fourteen pence a day?"

Says the daughter to the mother
"You need not run them down;
My father was a Navvy Boy
When he came to this town;
He roamed about from town to town
Just seeking for employ;
Go where he will, he's my love still
He's my own dear Navvy Boy."

Now just a short time after this
Her father died I'm told,
And left unto his daughter
Five hundred pounds in gold;
And when she got the money,
Soon I became her joy,
For she longed to go and tramp it
With her own dear Navvy Boy.

From Songs of the People, Henry
Collected from Robert Lyons
RG