Wee Jack - Golden Bough

Wee Jack was a lazy boy and this he didn’t deny,

whenever there was work to do, suddenly Jack was nowhere by.

His father called him «Lazy Jack», be that as it may,

early in the morning you could hear his father say:

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Wee Jack took the goat to town all on the market day,

he stopped along the market road and he never made it anyway.

When Wee Jack late to supper came, his mother didn’t ask why,

but early in the morning you could hear his mother cry:

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Wee Jack went to milk the cow and he left the pail behind,

it didn’t matter anyway, for milking was never on his mind.

He lay for hours in the grass, listening to it grow,

and rolled about the autumn bay that he would never mow.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Wee Jack went to cut the grass when the day was new,

he took a short cut through the woods and he stopped along the tadpole pool.

He played for hours in the pond, kneeling so he could see,

and the only thing he cut that day were the scratches on his knee.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Jack grew bigger as a boy, his habits didn’t improve,

his mind was always somewhere other than the work he was to do.

His father called him «Lazy Jack"and said, «He'll never change.»

His mother said, «Just give him time, for life is often strange.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Jack became a handsome man, he learned the farmer’s trade,

he took a wife and he built a home, soon a family life he made.

He rises early with the sun to start each working day,

and calls out to his sleeping boy the words he swore he’d never say:

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

Wee Jack, Jack get up, the frost is on the hay.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping,

The storm is on the headlands and the skies are turning gray,

The cows are in the meadow and the sheep have lost their way.

Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping, Wee Jack, Jack get up,

no more time for sleeping, Wee Jack, Jack get up, no more time for sleeping…