Come join us, brave countrymen, now is the time
For Englishmen's courage and valour to shine;
O come, take up arms, 'tis for glory we fight,
To punish our foes and our freedom to right.

If a soldier in battle should happen to fall,
He's lov'd, he's lamented, he's honoured by all;
Or if he by chance leave a limb in the field
There's Chelsea and pension misfortune to shield.

But come turn your thoughts to the prospect of peace
Our watchings, our marchings, our dangers shall cease,
In barracks our wants are all fully supplied
Sufficient for nature we care not beside.

And when to a town or a village we come
The lassies all flock to the beat of the drum;
Their honest old sweethearts they set them at nought,
They slight even a laird for a bonny red--coat.

We range thro' the world and we vary the scene
We please where we go from fourscore to fifteen;
And, then, when our locks look respectably gray,
''There goes an old veteran, O bless him,'' they say.