I ain't the kind of bloke as takes to any steady job; <br />I drives me bottle cart around the town; <br />A bloke what keeps 'is eyes about can always make a bob -- <br />I couldn't bear to graft for every brown. <br />There's lots of handy things about in everybody's yard, <br />There's cocks and hens a-runnin' to an' fro, <br />And little dogs what comes and barks -- we take 'em off their guard <br />And we puts 'em with the Empty Bottle-O! <br /> <br />Chorus -- <br />So it's any "Empty bottles! Any empty bottle-O!" <br />You can hear us round for half a mile or so <br />And you'll see the women rushing <br />To take in the Monday's washing <br />When they 'ear us crying, "Empty Bottle-O!" <br /> <br />I'm driving down by Wexford-street and up a winder goes, <br />A girl sticks out 'er 'ead and looks at me, <br />An all-right tart with ginger 'air, and freckles on 'er nose; <br />I stops the cart and walks across to see. <br />"There ain't no bottles 'ere," says she, "since father took the pledge," <br />"No bottles 'ere," says I, "I'd like to know <br />What right 'ave you to stick your 'ead outside the winder ledge, <br />If you 'aven't got no Empty Bottle-O!" <br />I sometimes gives the 'orse a spell, and then the push and me <br />We takes a little trip to Chowder Bay. <br />Oh! ain't it nice the 'ole day long a-gazin' at the sea <br />And a-hidin' of the tanglefoot away. <br />But when the booze gits 'old of us, and fellows starts to "scrap", <br />There's some what likes blue-metal for to throw: <br />But as for me, I always says for layin' out a "trap" <br />There's nothing like an Empty Bottle-O!<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bottle-o/
