On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep

From Music Hall Memories No 20

I’ve just been lingering all alone Down Paradise Row
When I was a kiddie, I’d a sweetheart, and down there we would go
I’d call her Nelly and she’d call me Joe
And we would romp there hand in hand
Then we’d both sit down on a doorstep there
And we’d picture the future grand.

On Mother Kelly’s doorstep, down Paradise Row
I’d sit along o’ Nelly, she’d sit along o’ Joe
She’d got a little hole in her frock, hole in her shoe
Hole in her sock where her toe peep’d thro’
But Nelly was the smartest down our Alley
On Mother Kelly’s doorstep, I’m wondering now
If li’l gal Nelly remembers Joe, her beau
And does she love me like she used to?
On Mother Kelly’s doorstep, down Paradise Row

The cobblestones were a meadow sweet, to Nelly and me
The smoky chimney on the housetop was a beautiful tree
And old Brown’s donkey was a big baa-lamb
And Mother Kelly in the house
On a wash-day, holding her pail, was Mary 
The milk maid milking cows