Brisk and Bonny Lad

This song is on the Coppersongs2 CD and also in The Copper Family Song Book - A Living Tradition.

I am a brisk and bonny lad and free from care and strife
And sweetly as the hours pass I love a country life.
At wake or fair I'm often there 'midst pleasure to be seen,
Though poor I am contented and as happy as a Queen.

I rise up in the morning my labour to pursue
And with my yoke and milking pails I trudge the morning dew,
My cows I milk and then I taste how sweet the nature yields,
The lark she sings to welcome me across the flowery fields.

And in the time of harvest how cheerfully we go
Some with hooks and some with crooks and some with scythes to mow,
And when our corn is free from harm we have not far to roam,
We'll all away to celebrate the welcome Harvest Home.