Tommy Makem – Home Boys Home lyrics

Chorus:
And it's home boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for awhile in my old count-a-ry
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny elm tree
They're all a-growing greener in my old count-a-ry

There was an apprentice lived in Strawberry Lane
Loved by her master and her mistress the same
Until a young sailor lad came sailing o'er the sea
And that was the beginning of her misery

This young maid being innocent she thought it was no harm
To go into bed for to keep his back warm
He hugged her and he kissed her and he called her his dear
He said "I wish, my love this night had been as long as a year"

'Twas early next morning the sailor lad arose
And into her apron he put handfuls of gold
"Take this my dear for the mischief that I've done
Last night I may have left you with a daughter or a son"

"And if it be a girl child dandle her on your knee
And if it be a male child call him after me
And when he is a man, you can dress him up in blue
He'll go skipping up the rigging like his daddy used to do"