Old Joe Clarke

I used to live on mountain top,
But now I live in town.
I'm boarding at the big hotel,
Courting Betsy Brown.

Chorus
Fare you well, old Joe Clarke, Fare you well, I'm gone.
Fare you well, old Joe Clarke, Good-bye, Betsy Brown.

2

The funniest thing I ever saw
Was two old women fighting,
The one cried out: “It's no fair fight!”
The other one's a-biting.”
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.

3

When I was a little girl
I used to play with toys;
But now I am a bigger girl
I'd rather play with boys.
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.

4

When I was a little boy
I used to want a knife;
But now I am a bigger boy
All I want is a wife.
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.

5

Once I had a muley cow
Muley when's she's born;
Took a buzzard a thousand years
To fly from horn to horn.
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.

6

Wish I was a sugar tree,
Standing in the middle of some town—
Ev'ry time a pretty girl passed,
I'd shake some sugar down.
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.

7

Old Joe Clarke had a yellow cat
She would neither sing nor pray;
She stuck her head in a buttermilk jar
And washed her sins away.
CHORUS : Fare you well, etc.
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