The Herring Girl

All you who look down on me with that judgement in your eyes While the jury picks its fate for me I'd have you save your sighs As a child with no family I was begging on the street When great fortune came and made me a herring girl I don't come from these islands, from England I have roamed And born in Great Yarmouth, that is my native home In Autumn when the girls all chased the fish down from the north How I longed that I would one day be a herring girl A young girl down from Aberdeen took sick and to her bed I asked if there was work and down to Rhona I was led Oh she smiled at the height of me, and said that I would do And as a Packer I was joined to be a herring girl This season started up in Scotland, I'd just turned sixteen And Rhona she's the greatest gutter Stornoway has seen At eighty fish a minute, and with Mary not much less We three, we're famed as the best crew of herring girls Last Saturday was dancing day, and the boys were in the town We were packing up and cleaning up and heading for our room When a stranger crept behind us in an ally round the back Out to catch himself a couple of fresh herring girls Oh so suddenly he's on us and he's knocked me to the ground And he's pinned our Rhona by the throat so she couldn't make a sound But from her apron pocket fell a knife so keen and sharp I've taught that man the price of fishing for a herring girl All you who look down on me with that judgement in your eyes While the jury picks its fate for me I'd have you save your sighs For I'd gladly do the same again to any man that tries Test his luck, and take advantage of a herring girl