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Be Home Early Tonight (Short Version)
See also: Be Home Early Tonight (Long Version)

I've travelled through life, I saw many's the strife,
Which surprised me in every way;
I've worked at the spade, I've worked with a plow
From sunset till sunrise at dawn;
And when I'd be going, my mother she'd say,
"Be home early tonight, my dear boy."

Be home early tonight, my dear boy,
Be home early tonight, my dear boy;
Don't spend all your money on gambling and drink,
For there's other things you can enjoy.

One night I left home, poor mother was ill,
In torture and fever and pain;
And when I returned, I found my mother was dead,
It was then I thought on her refrain.

Be home early tonight, my dear boy,
Be home early tonight, my dear boy;
Don't spend all your money on gambling and drink,
For there's other things you can enjoy.

####.... Variant of Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy, probably written by John Gibbons and published in Wehman Brothers' Good Old Time Songs #3 (1914) per The Traditional Ballad Index ©2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle ....####

Sung by Mrs. John Powers [b.ca.1916] of Tors Cove, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).

A longer variant was sung by Mrs. Stamp of St. Vincent's, NL, and also published as Be Home Early Tonight in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).

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