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Young Folk The Little Boy Billee
 
     
 

treeThere were three sailors from Bristol City
There were three sailors from Bristol City
Who stole a ship and went to sea.
Who stole a ship and went to sea.

There was Gorging Jack and Guzzling Jimmy
There was Gorging Jack and Guzzling Jimmy
And there was the little boy Billee
And there was the little boy Billee

They stole a tin a captain's biscuits
And three big bottles of best whisky.

But when they reached the broad Atlantic
They'd nothing left but one split pea.

Says Gorging Jack to Guzzling Jimmy
"There's nothing left so I'm going to eat thee"

Said Guzzling Jimmy "I'm old and toughish
So let's kill and eat the little boy Billee"

"Oh little boy Billee, we're gonna kill and eat ya
So undo the top button of your little chemise".

"Oh may I say my catechism
That my dear mother taught to me?"

He climbed up to the top fore-gallant
And there he fell down on his knees.

But when he reached the eleventh commandment
"Yo ho" he cries "for land I see."

"I see Jerusalem and Madagascar
And north and south Amerikee"

"I see the British fleet at anchor
And Admiral Nelson K.C.B."

They hung Gorging Jack and Guzzling Jimmy
But they made an admiral out of Little Boy Billee.


"La Courte Paille" is widely sung in France and has been immortalized in Britain in Thackeray's adaptation, "There were three sailors from Bristol city".


[Key D]

 
 
     
 
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13-Jan-2011
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