And the matter to mend, now my bill was near due, So I wrote to my friend, and just asked to renew; He replied he was sorry he couldn"t, because The bill had pa.s.sed into a usurer"s claws.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, "But perhaps he"ll renew it," said Billy Barlow.
I applied; to renew he was quite content, If secured, and allowed just three hundred per cent.; But as I couldn"t do, Barr, Rodgers, and Co.
Soon sent up a summons for Billy Barlow.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, They soon settled the business of Billy Barlow.
For a month or six weeks I stewed over my loss, And a tall man rode up one day on a black horse; He asked, "Don"t you know me?" I answered him "No."
"Why," said he, "my name"s Kinsmill; how are you, Barlow?"
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, He"d got a fi. fa. for poor Billy Barlow.
What I"d left of my sheep and my traps he did seize, And he said, "They won"t pay all the costs and my fees;"
Then he sold off the lot, and I"m sure "twas a sin, At sixpence a head, and the station giv"n in.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, "I"ll go back to England," said Billy Barlow.
My sheep being sold, and my money all gone, Oh, I wandered about then quite sad and forlorn; How I managed to live it would shock you to know, And as thin as a lath got poor Billy Barlow.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, Quite down on his luck was poor Billy Barlow.
And in a few weeks more, the sheriff, you see, Sent the tall man on horseback once more unto me; Having got all he could by the writ of fi. fa., By way of a change he"d brought up a ca. sa.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, He seized on the body of Billy Barlow.
He took me to Sydney, and there they did lock Poor unfortunate Billy fast "under the clock;"
And to get myself out I was forced, you must know The schedule to file of poor Billy Barlow.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, In the list of insolvents was Billy Barlow.
Then once more I got free, but in poverty"s toil; I"ve no "cattle for salting," no "sheep for to boil;"
I can"t get a job-though to any I"d stoop, If it was only the making of portable soup."
Oh dear, lackaday, oh, Pray give some employment to Billy Barlow.