Michael was hearty, Michael was young High was the step in the jig that he sprung He had good looks, Lord, and sootherin' tongue He wanted a girl with a fortune
Nanny was grey-eyed, and Nanny was tall Fair was the face hidden under her shawl For he loved her the best of them all She hadn't a penny to a fortune
So he bead a look out for a likelier match When he married a girl who was counted a catch Ugly as need be, with a dark little patch “Well, that's just a trifle, ” he told her
So she'd brought him her good-lookin' gold to admire She brought him her good-lookin' cows to his barn Far from good-lookin', she'd sit by the fire And paid him the trifle he told her
And he met pretty Nan when a month had gone by He fought like a fool to get round her, he tried With a smile on her lips and a spark in her eye “How is the woman who owns you? ”
And it's never been tellin' the life that he's led Sure many's a night that he's wished himself dead For the sake of the two eyes in pretty Nan's head And the tongue of the woman who owns him
Oh Michael was hearty, Michael was young High was the step in the jig that he sprung He had good looks, Lord, and sootherin' tongue He wanted a girl with a fortune