I                  VIm
Down in the willow gar - den
                 I                  VIm
where my Love and I did meet.
          I                    VIm
'Twas there we sat a courting,
      I                  V       I
my love dropped off to sleep.
   IV                    I           VIm
I had a bottle of Burgundy wine,
                I                      VIm
which my true love did not know,
       I                             VIm
and there I poisoned that dear little girl,
          I            V           I
down under the bank below.

I stabbed her with my dagger which was a bloody knife.
I threw her into the river, which was a dreadful sight.
My father often told me that money would set me free.
If I would murder that dear little girl
whose name was Rose Connelly.

And now he sits in his cottage door, wiping his weeping eye.
And now he waits for his own dear son
upon the scaffold high.
My race is run beneath the sun, cruel hell is waiting for me,
for I have murdered my own true love,
whose name was Rose Connelly.

          I                             IV
There was an old man lived over the hill.
          I                            IV
If he ain't moved on he's a livin' there still.
        I                        V-7th                   I
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

Well the devil came up to him one day
Said"One of your family I'm gonna take away"
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

Oh, please don't take my eldest son,
There's work on the farm that's got to be done.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

All I want's that wife of yours.
Well, you can take her with all of my heart.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

Well, he picks up the wife upon his back,
And off to hell he goes clickety clack.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

He carries her on about a mile down the road.
He said old woman you're a devil of a load.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

He carries her on down to the gates of Hell .
He says poke up the fire we'll scorch her well.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle I Fi, Diddle I, Diddle I Ay

Nine little devils went climbin' up the walls,
Sayin' take her back Daddy she'll murder us all.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle .........

Got up the next mornin' and spied thru the crack.
I seen the old devil come a draggin' her back.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle .........

He said here's your wife both sound and well.
If I kept her any longer she'd a tore up hell.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle .........

He said I been a devil most all my life,
But I never been in hell till I met your wife.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle .........

This show's that women are better than the men.
They can go down to hell and come back again.
Sing Fi, Fi, Diddle .........

                I
Take me back to the place
                              V
where I first saw the light,
          I                  I-7th
to my sweet sunny South
              IV
take me home.
                    I                  V
Where the mocking birds sang me
       I               V
To sleep in the night.
       I              V-7th         I
Oh, why was I tempted to roam?

I think with regret of the dear ones I left,
Of the warm hearts that sheltered me there.
Of the wife and the dear ones of whom I'm bereft,
And I sigh for the old place and home.

The path to our cabin they say has grown green
And the stones are quite mossy around.
And I know that the faces and forms that I love
Now lie in the cold mossy ground.

Take me back to the place where the orange trees grow.
To my place in the evergreen shade.
Where the flowers on the rivers green margins do grow,
And share their sweet scent with the glade.

But yet I'll return to the place of my birth,
Where my children have played by the door.
Where they pulled the white blossoms that garnished the earth,
And will echo their footsteps no more.