Mrs McGrath Songtext
von Pete Seeger

Oh, Mrs. McGrath, the sergeant said
Would you like to make a soldier out of your son Ted?
With a scarlet coat and a big cocked hat
Now, Mrs. McGrath, wouldn′t you like that?

So, Mrs. McGrath sat on the seashore
For the space of seven long years or more
'Til she spied a ship come a-sailing on the sea
Hullaloo-bubaloo and I think it is he

Oh, Captain dear, where have you been?
Have you been sailing on the Mediterranean?
Oh, have you any tidings of my son Ted?
Is the poor boy living or is he dead?


Then up steps Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
Crying, "Holy Moses, it isn′t you!"

Oh, was you drunk or was you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
Wore your two fine legs from the knees away?

I wasn't drunk, I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
But a cannonball on the fifth of May
Swept my two fine legs from the knees away

Oh, Teddy, my boy, the widow cried
Your two fine legs were your mother′s pride
I′d rather have my Ted as he used to be
Than the King of France and his whole navy


Oh, foreign war as I do proclaim
Between Don John and the King of Spain
By the heavens, I'll make ′em rue the time
They swept the legs from a child of mine