Three Pounds Wisdom
The strange lad avoids misfortune by applying three pieces of unconventional wisdom.
He came to a farm and he took on the hire, To gather the eggs by the warm kiji fire, Three thousand eggs from the straw and the muck, Three pounds for a year, and the rest was hard luck. He bent his young back and he blistered his hand, For three silver coins in a faraway land.
When twelve months had passed he came asking his pay, But the master replied, "Wait, I've another way, Take skyans instead of the silver I owe, For wisdom is worth more than money, you know. Leave not the folk club for cover bands' roar, and keep to the music you've loved from of yore."
A second year passed and he asked for his fee, But again it was wisdom, no silver to see: "Sleep not under a roof where a young woman dwells, With an old man beside her, a warning it spells. That place holds to trouble, however it seems, So turn on your heel and go round by the streams."
The third year was done. "Well, alright," he said plain, "I'll take your wise words through the wind and the rain. I'm leaving dreckly to see my young maid, So give me your best now," to the master he said. "Get two pints in first, before buying a round, For that is the best piece of wisdom I've found."
He walked toward Bude, met with three blow-ins there, Who offered to travel the cold coastal air. In Stratton, the cover bands played loud and new; The blow-ins went in, but our strange lad already knew. He turned to this folk club for songs of the gale, And left them complaining their music was stale.
They stopped at an old inn beside the road sign; A young woman ran it, the old man had a line: "It's open mic night, and I'm on after eight." Our lad said, "I'll pass," and walked right through the gate. He found a quiet barn and he slept like a king, While the blow-ins were trapped through an endless sing.
He came to his maid, and right glad was to meet her, She said, "Let us go to the pub, the Blue Peter! The whole town is there, and they're keen to be told Of all the adventures you now unfold." He got two pints in before buying a round, And saved his own pride from hitting the ground.