D
Now I've often heard it said from me father and me mother
A G D
That going to a wedding is the making of another
D G D
Well, if this be so, then I’ll go without a biddin
A
O kind providence, won't you send me to a wedding
[Chorus]
D G D G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
D A D
if I die an old maid in a garret
[Verse 2]
D
Well, there's my sister Jean, she's not handsome or good-looking
A G D
Scarcely sixteen and a fella she was courting
D G D
Now she’s twenty-four with a son and a daughter
A
Here am I at forty-five and I've never had an offer
[Chorus]
D G D G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
D A D
if I die an old maid in a garret
[Verse 3]
D
I can cook and I can sew and I can keep the house right tidy
A G D
Rise up in the morning and get the breakfast ready
D G D
There's nothing in this wide world would make me half so cheery
A
As a wee fat man who would call me his own deary
[Chorus]
D G D G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
D A D
if I die an old maid in a garret
[Verse 4]
D
So come landsman or come pinsman, come tinker or come tailor
A G D
Come fiddler or come dancer, come ploughboy or come sailor
D G D
Come rich man, come poor man, come fool or come witty
A
Come any man at all that will marry me for pity
[Chorus]
D G D G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
D A D
if I die an old maid in a garret
[Verse 5]
D
Well now I'm away home for nobody's heeding
A G D
Nobody's heeding and to poor Annie’s pleading
D G D
I'll go away home to my own bitty garret
A
If I can't get a man, then I'll have to get a parrot
[Chorus]
D G D G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
D A D
if I die an old maid in a garret
