`Oh, Mrs. McGrath,` the sergeant said,
`Would you like to make a soldier out of your son, Ted?
With a scarlet coat, and a big cocked hat,
Sure, Mrs. McGrath, wouldn`t you like that?`
cho: With your too- ri- ay, fol the diddle day,
Too- ri- you- ri too- ri- ay.
Now Mrs. McGrath lived by the seashore
For the space of seven long years or more;
Till she say a big ship sail into the bay,
`Here`s my son, Ted, will ye clear the way!`
cho:
`Oh, Captain, dear, where have ye been? ;
Have you been in the Meditereen?
Will ye tell me the news of my son, Ted?
Is the poor boy livin`, or is he dead?`
cho:
Ah, well up comes Ted without any legs
An in their place he had two wooden pegs,
Well, she kissed him a dozen times or two,
Saying `Glory to God?, sure it wouldn`t be you!`
cho:
`Oh were ye drunk, or were ye blind
That ye left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it while walkin` on the sea
A big fish ate your legs from the knees away?`
cho:
`Well, I wasn`t drunk and I wasn`t blind
When I left my two fine legs behind.
But a cannon ball, on the fifth of May,
Tore my two fine legs from the knees away.`
cho:
`Oh, Teddy, me boy,` the old widow cried,
`Yer two fine legs were yer mammy`s pride,
Them stumps of a tree wouldn`t do at all,
Why didn`t ye run from the big cannon ball?`
cho:
`Well, all foreign wars I do proclaim
Between Don John and the King of Spain,
And bejasus I`ll make them rue the time
That they swept the legs from a child of mine.`