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Title
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Nobleman and the thresher
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Singer
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Unknown
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Song Lyrics
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Verse 1
A nobleman lived on a fine estate,
And he kept a thresher whose family was great;
He's a wife and seven children, the most of them small,
With nothing but his labour to maintain them all.
Verse 2
This nobleman went to the thresher one day,
Said he, 'Honest thresher, come tell me, I pray!
Thou hast a wife and seven children, I know it is true,
How do you maintain them as well as you do?'
Verse 3
'Why, sometimes I reap and sometimes I mow,
And sometimes a-hedging and ditching I'll go;
There's nothing comes amiss to me - cart, harrow nor plough,
So my living I get by the sweat of my brow.
Verse 4
I go to my house when my day's work is done,
My children come round me with their prattling tongue;
My children come round me with their prattling toys,
Now this is the comfort a poor man enjoys.
Verse 5
My wife she is willing to join in the yoke,
We never do or the other provoke;
There's nothing to wonder at our being poor,
Though we manage to keep the wolf from the door.'
Verse 6
'Now, as you speak so well of your family and wife,
I will make you happy for the rest of your life;
Fifty bright acres of land will I give unto thee,
To maintain thy wife and thy dear family.'
