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Two pence a-day to them I give,
And will, while I have days to live.
To help their poor necessitie,
When I was young they nursed me.
Two little babes, kind Sir, I have,
Who do for daily succour crave,
Their lives in order to defend,
A two-pence more I daily spend.
My wife she has two daughters dear,
All by a former husband here,
To them I give two-pence a-day,
And thus I count all given away;
For why? I do not once expect
That they will in the least respect,
Or succour me in grief or woe.
When I shall past my labour go.
The King who heard him all the while,
Said, My friend, with a royal smile,
In order to increase thy wealth,
Here's five guineas to drink my health.
And as the King discoursed there,
His royal nobles far and near,
Did run to search the whole country,
To find his royal Majesty:
And riding o'er the farmer's land,
They spied their mighty Monarch stand
Discoursing to a ploughman there,
And they rode up with heads all bare.
