In Genesis no knowledge is
Of this thing to be got,
Whether young men did bundle then,
Or whether they did not.
The sacred book says wives they took,
It don't say how they courted,
Whether that they in bed did lay,
Or by the fire sported.
But some do hold in times of old,
That those about to wed,
Spent not the night, nor yet the light
By fire, or in the bed.
They only meant to say they sent
A man to chuse a bride,
Isaac did so, but let me know
Of any one beside.
Man don't pretend to trust a friend,
To choose him sheep and cows,
Much less a wife which all his life
He doth expect to house.
Since it doth stand each man in hand,
To happify his life,
I would advise each to be wise,
And chuse a prudent wife.
Since bundling is not the thing,
That judgments will procure,
Go on young men and bundle then,
But keep your bodies pure.
(Printed and sold by Nathaniel Coverly, Jun. Boston.)
The foregoing version is evidently not complete, several verses having
been left out on account of their containing _more truth than poetry_,
but these may be supplied from a manuscript copy, evidently made from
memory, with considerable variations from the printed copy, which by no
means improve it, though the schoolmaster did his best, and probably
saved for us a very complete version of the ballad as it passed from
mouth to mouth before the printed copy was made.
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