I was brought up in Yorkshire and when I was sixteen
Oh, I ran away to London and a soldier I became

With me fine cap and feather, likewise me rattling drum
They learned me to play upon the rub-a-dub-a-dum
With me gentle waist so slender, me fingers long and small
And to play upon the rub-a-dub the best of them all

And so many were the pranks that I saw among the French
And so boldly did I fight, me boys, although I'm but a wench
And in buttoning up me trousers, so often have I smiled
To think I lay with a thousand men and a maiden all the while

With me fine cap and feather, likewise me rattling drum
They learned me to play upon the rub-a-dub-a-dum
With me gentle waist so slender, me fingers long and small
And to play upon the rub-a-dub the best of them all

And they never found me secret out until this very hour
When they sent me off to London to keep sentry at the Tower
When a young girl fell in love with me and she found that I was a maid
She went up to me officer, me secret she betrayed

With me fine cap and feather, likewise me rattling drum
They learned me to play upon the rub-a-dub-a-dum
With me gentle waist so slender, me fingers long and small
And to play upon the rub-a-dub the best of them all
He unbuttoned my red tunic and he found that it was true
"It's a shame," he says, "to lose a pretty drummer boy like you"
So now I must return to me mum and dad at home
And along with me bold comrades no longer can I roam

With me fine cap and feather, likewise me rattling drum
They learned me to play upon the rub-a-dub-a-dum
With me gentle waist so slender, me fingers long and small
And to play upon the rub-a-dub the best of them all