When I was a bachelor I lived by myself,

And all the meat I got I put upon a shelf;

The rats and mice did lead me such a life

That I went to London to get myself a wife.


The streets were so broad and the lanes were so narrow,

I could not get my wife home without a wheel-barrow;

The wheel-barrow broke, my wife got a fall,

Down tumbled wheel-barrow, little wife, and all.