> Folk Music > Songs > The Soldier’s Poor Little Boy / Early Pearly / Haley Paley

The Soldier’s Poor Little Boy / Early Pearly / Haley Paley

[ Roud 259 ; Master title: The Soldier’s Poor Little Boy ; Laws Q28 ; TYG 126 ; Ballad Index LQ28 ; Mudcat 113091 ; trad.]

Harry Boardman and Dave Hillery sang Haley Paley in 1971 on their Topic album of popular song and verse from Lancashire and Yorkshire, Trans Pennine. They noted:

Around Christmas time in Ripon children sang this song from door to door as recently as the 1940s and its pathetic sentiments were intended to wring money as well as tears from every householder. Early on New Year’s Day the people in the big houses invited children over the threshold and Haley Paley was followed by the Lucky Birding chant:

Lucky bu’d lucky bu’d chuck chuck chuck
Master and missis it’s time to get up
If you don’t get up you’ll have no luck
Lucky bu’d, lucky bu’d chuck chuck chuck

Words and tune remembered by Mrs. Lilian Hillery of Ripon.

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sang Early Pearly on their 2022 Christmas / homeless charities single Early Pearly and on their 2023 album of winter songs and tunes from Yorkshire, Wesselbobs. They noted:

Early Pearly is a traditional Yorkshire song that was still being sung by children in the 1940s in the streets of Ripon at Christmas time. The jaunty tune shrouds the sentimentality typical of Victorian tearjerkers, and the children would go from door to door in the hope of tugging on the heartstrings of the occupants to gain financial reward. This version is a concoction of Haley Paley from Dave Hillery and Harry Boardman’s 1971 album Trans Pennine and Hull singer Margaret Gardham’s Early Pearly on the Yorkshire Garland website. It was sung in her family as a lullaby for at least four generations.

Lyrics

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sing Early Pearly

Early Pearly snow on the ground,
The wind blows bitter and raw.
A poor young sailor lad dressed up in rags,
Came to a lady’s door.

Chorus (after each verse):
Early Pearly snow on the ground,
The wind blows bitter and cold.
Early Pearly snow on the ground,
The wind blows bitter and cold.

The lady sat up in a window so high,
She cast her eye upon him,
“Go ’way, go ’way, you tarry sailor,
So dirty, so ragged and thin.”

“But, madam, I’m hungry and, madam, I’m cold,”
The sailor lad cried from the door,
“If you’ve got a penny to give me,” he said,
“I never shall want any more.”

The lady still sat in her window so high,
Still casting her eye upon him,
“Go ’way, go ’way, you tarry sailor,
So dirty, so ragged and thin.”

“My father, my father was drowned in the sea,
My mother she cried and she cried,
Did you ever see a smile on her face,
Of a broken heart she died.”

She threw a penny all down in the snow,
She threw down a penny or two.
“Oh, I am your William that’s come from the sea,
Your William and you never knew.”

“Come in, come in, you good hearted lad,
You never shall want any more,
As long as I live, I’ll charity give,
To a poor young sailor boy.”