O Amble is a fine town with ships about the bay
It's fain and very fain to be there myself today
I'm wishing in my heart I was far away from here
Sitting in my parlor and talking with my dear

And it's home, dearie, home, it's home I want to be
My topsails are hoisted and I am out to sea
The oak and the ash and the Bonnie birchen tree
Are all a-growing green in the North country
And it's home, dearie, home

A letter came today, but somehow I cannot speak
And the proud and happy tears are a-rolling down my checks
There's someone here, she says, you've been waiting for to see
With your merry hazel eyes, looking up from off my knee

But the letter never said if we have a boy or girl
Got me so confused that my heart is all a whirl
So I'm going back to port, where I'll quickly turn around
And take the fastest ship, which to Ambletown is bound

Well, if it be a girl, she shall wear a golden ring
If it be a boy, he shall live to serve the King
With his buckles and his boot and his little jacket blue
He'll walk the quarterdeck, like his daddy used to do