There was a woman and she lived on her own
Slaved on her own and skivvied on her own
She'd two little boys and two little girls --
She lived all alone with her husband

He was a hunk of a man
A chunk of a man and a drunk of a man
A hunk of a drunken skunk of a man
Such a boozy, bruising, bully of a husband

For when he'd come home drunk at night
He'd thrash her black and thrash her white;
Thrashed her to within an inch of her life
And snored all night like a big drunken husband

One night she gathered her tears all round her shame
Covered up the bruise and cried with the pain
You'll not do that ever again
I'll not live anymore with a drunk of a husband

And that night as he lay drunk in bed
The strangest thought came to her head
She took the needle and the thread
And went straight in to her sleeping husband

She started to stitch with a girlish thrill
With a woman's eye and a seamstress' skill
She bibbed and tucked with an iron will
A she stitched all round her sleeping husband
The top sheet, the bottom sheet, too
The blanket stitched to the mattress through
She bibbed and tucked the whole night through
Waiting for the dawn and her husband

Solo (hyup!)

He awoke with a pain in his head
He found that he could not move in bed
Sweet God in Heaven, have I lost me legs!
She just sat and smiled at her husband

In her hand she held the frying pan
With a flutter in her heart she flew at him;
He could not move he cried, God damn!
Don't you swear at me ya dirty husband."

She beat him black, she beat him blue
With the frying pan and the colander too
With the rolling pin a stroke or two
Such a battered and repenting husband

"If you ever come home drunk again
I'll stitch you up and sew you in
Then I'll pack my bag and I'll be gone
I'll not live with a drunk of a husband."
Isn't it true what a wife can do
With a needle, thread and a stitch or two?
He's wiped his slate and his boozin's through
She don't live anymore with a drunken husband

Recorded by Mike Waterson, Martin Carthy, Max Hole
Filename( STICTIME
BR