2. O Collin, I've seen with a sorrowful heart,
You long have neglected your plow and your cart,
O, your sheep now at random disorderly run;
Your Sunday's new waistcoat goes every day on;
Stick close to your farm or you'll suffer a loss,
For the stone that is rolling can gather no moss.
3. Dear wife, don't be talking of stones, nor of moss
Or think by our going you will suffer a loss,
For there we can have as much land as we please,
Drink brandy and whisky and live at our ease.
4. O Collin, pray hear me, I think you are wrong,
The lands in those parts are not bought with a song.
In purchasing whisky I am almost in despair,
It must be of cash, a great consequence there.
5. We've houses, we've lads, we've harrows, we've plows;
We've sheep, we have horses, we've heifers, we've cows;
Besides a good barn that stands in our yard,
We'll turn into cash and we need not fare hard.
Whilst here we must labour each day in the field,
The winter destroys all the summer can yield.
6. Your Genesee's land Kentucky to clear,
Will cost you both labour and money a year,
You've cows, sheep and heifers and all things to buy,
You'll hardly get suited before that you die.
Stick close to your farm or you'll suffer a loss,
For the stone that is rolling can gather no moss.
7. There's a house and a barn and a- plenty of land,
We can have ready clear'd without doubt at our hand,
Besides heifers and sheep are not very dear,
We can feast upon buffalo half of the year;
8. I wish I'd a purse of ten thousand bright crowns,
And a store of good lots in the best of our towns,
O, then we'd remove and we'd wish for good luck,
We'd ride on the banks of the pleasant Kentuck. |
9. Dear wife, let us go from the lands we possess,
For wishing can make us no better nor worse,
There you'll be a lady and who knows but I,
Shall be a rich gov'nor before that I die;
10. 'Tis time that such thoughts of a farmer should cease,
For there you'll be no more than a justice of peace,
So leave off your argument, your castle repair,
And let us conclude we shall never go there;
11. Your argument I know is not without right,
Yet I must go there for I long to be great,
In less than a year in a coach you will ride,
In coaches and stages with Collin you'll glide;
12. O Collin, remember those lands of delight,
Infested with Indians who murder by night,
Your house may be plunder'd and burnt to the ground,
Your wife and your children lie mangled around.
13. Dear wife, you've convinced me I'll urge you no more,
I never once thought of your dying before,
My children I love altho' they are but small,
My dear wife I do value as much as them all;
We'll stick to our farm and prevent every loss,
For the stone that is rolling can gather no moss.
14. We'll set all our thoughts on farming affairs,
To make our corn grow and our apple trees bear,
'Tis contentment upbraided contentment to know,
So you to your distaff and I to my plow;
We'll stick to our farm and prevent every loss,
For the stone that is rolling can gather no moss.
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