I was brought up in this town and even when I was a girl at school there was only one boy I cared two straws about.

He and I went to picnics together and to parties and everywhere.

Folks used to laugh and say we was keepin' comp'ny, even then.
"Well, when I was eighteen, after father died, I went up to New Bedford to work in a store there.

Wanted to earn my own way.

And this young feller I'm tellin' you about went away to sea, but every time he come home from a voyage he come to see me and things went on that way till we was promised to each other.