Where Have You Gone

Where have you gone 
Pretty Girl, Pretty Girl
Where have you gone
Now you’ve been away so long
Just taking a walk in the country air
Country air, Country air
Skipping along without a care
All the whole day long

Beware of that big bad world out there
Beware of what may be lurking almost any where
Under that bush, behind that tree
Or on some rock, you’ll scrape your knee
It’s time you were coming home to tea
Before the Sun goes down

No, not just now, I don’t wish to
Thank you, thank you, thankyou
I’m strolling along with the wind in my hair
Strolling along in the Sun I declare
Just over that hill and then I shall repair

Oh! Look way down there
I can see the County Fair 
Lots of pretty boys
So many of them there
Perhaps they’ll come along a courting me
If they come, then we’ll see
Surely one will come a courting me
How could that be so wrong

That’s what we were talking of
And warned, warned you, warned you 
Why can’t you see that this will be so good for me
For one handsome lad has just walked on up to me
He’s doffing his cap and bending his knee
Oh, pretty girl you’ll be safe here with me
So pretty girl come along and you will see
For on that ride what fun will be
So much fun It will be
And then we’ll have a dance and shake a knee
Before the music’s done.

Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, whatever have we done
For now I wake from dreams to find
A brand new day has begun
When there we were just sipping at our Summer wine
In the setting of the Sun
Yes, but you were sniggering
When the kissing first begun
Ah, but then you just fell into my arms
Oh, dear Lord, was I succumbing to your charms
I should have heard the Church bells ring aligning
For then it never would have begun
They should have all been loudly ringing
And sounding the alarm

No, No, No, Not so, for this was all meant to be
We bided all of the last night
In perfect harmony
So why is it now that you really have to go
For that is what I’d really like to know

Well now - How nice it is for all you boys to be
So damned debonair and calmly fancy free
How is it that you can say
That it’s all the same for me
For when a poor sheltered girl
What excuses can there be
Scorned by one and all in polite society
Should she be left to face the world
Bereft of Charity

Now you tell me how can I ever go back to my home
For when it is that I am found
I shall surely be disowned.

Oh, woe is me! What now shall come to be
Maybe to be banished, across the wide, wide sea
Shunned by my friends and family
Never more them to see 
To live alone in abject misery
“Till all my days are done.

Alas pitiful me. It is so shameful
Shameful, shameful, shameful  
Oh, what now, is there ever to be done
When all of my life
Has only just begun

So pretty girl, why don’t you come and marry me
Under the bough of that spreading chestnut tree
Then we could raise a family
Our family, one, two, three
Then it would be right for the world to see
If you would marry me.

Rodd Sherwin
to Franz Schubert's classic
'Marche Militaire'