D
Now I've often heard it said from me father and me mother
     A                         G          D
That going to a wedding is the making of another
      D                        G            D
Well, if this be so, then I’ll go without a biddin
                                          A
O kind providence, won't you send me to a wedding


[Chorus]
        D G    D                G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
     D                    A   D
if I die an old maid in a garret


[Verse 2]
      D
Well, there's my sister Jean, she's not handsome or good-looking
A                         G          D
Scarcely sixteen and a fella she was courting
    D                        G         D
Now she’s twenty-four with a son and a daughter
                                              A
Here am I at forty-five and I've never had an offer


[Chorus]
        D G    D                G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
     D                    A   D
if I die an old maid in a garret


[Verse 3]
      D
I can cook and I can sew and I can keep the house right tidy
A                          G                 D
Rise up in the morning and get the breakfast ready
        D                                G               D
There's nothing in this wide world would make me half so cheery
                                           A
As a wee fat man who would call me his own deary


[Chorus]
        D G    D                G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
     D                    A   D
if I die an old maid in a garret


[Verse 4]
        D
So come landsman or come pinsman, come tinker or come tailor
     A                            G                 D
Come fiddler or come dancer, come ploughboy or come sailor
     D                             G            D
Come rich man, come poor man, come fool or come witty
                                           A
Come any man at all that will marry me for pity


[Chorus]
        D G    D                G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
     D                    A   D
if I die an old maid in a garret


[Verse 5]
         D
Well now I'm away home for nobody's heeding
     A                  G            D
Nobody's heeding and to poor Annie’s pleading
     D                  G         D
I'll go away home to my own bitty garret
                                              A
If I can't get a man, then I'll have to get a parrot


[Chorus]
        D G    D                G
And its O dear me, how would it be,
     D                    A   D
if I die an old maid in a garret