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95

EGGS AND BACON.

Oh! the eggs and bacon;
And oh! the eggs and bacon;
And the gentleman and lady
A walking up the way!
And if you will be my sweetheart,
And if you will be my sweetheart,
And if you will be my darling,
I will be your own, to-day.
Oh! I found a jolly hedgehog;
Oh! I found a good fat hedgehog;
Oh! I found a good big hedgehog,
In the wood beyond the town:
And there came the lord and lady,
The handsome lord and lady,
And underneath the branches
I saw the two sit down.
96

“Under the hedge at my ease I'll stay,
Singing so jolly the livelong day.
My horse is a Rommany, just like me,
He's stealing the farmer's oats, you see.
Cheer up, brother, never sorrow!
Luck will come again to-morrow.
“If you care for nothing, you needn't doubt
But luck will come by and will find you out;
For jolly good luck, as you well may see,
Is a friend to the regular Rommany.
Cheer up, brother, never sorrow,
Luck will come again to-morrow.”
Janet Tuckey.

The incident here described is substantially the same as one narrated by an old Gipsy in Surrey as having occured to himself. In justice to the old man, it should be admitted that the theft of the donkey and horse is a poetic fiction.

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