Smuggler's Song

Michael Longcor and Rudyard Kipling

A Smuggler's Song

Words by Rudyard Kipling, adapted and with music by Michael Longcor.
Music Copyright ©1988 by Firebird Arts & Music/BMI.
Used by permission

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie,
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Chorus
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark-
Brandy for the Parson, and 'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, not use 'em for your play.
Put the brushwood back again, and they'll be gone next day.

If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat that's cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm--Don't you ask no more!

Chorus

If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be mindful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid," and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!

Knocks and footsteps round the house, whistles after dark-
You've no call for running out until the house dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie-
They don't fret to follow when the Gentlmen go by!

Chorus

If you do as you've been told, likely there's a chance,
That you'll be give a dainty doll that's all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood-
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!

Final Chorus
Five and twenty ponies, trotting through the dark-
Brandy for the Parson, and 'Baccy for the Clerk;
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie-
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!