Then that little tin soldier he sobbed and he sighed, So I patted his little tin head. What vexes your little tin soul? said I, And this is what he said: I've been on this stall a very long time, And I'm marked twenty-nine, as you see; Whilst just on the shelf above my head, There's a fellow marked sixty-three.
Now he hasn't got a sword and he hasn't got a horse, And I'm quite as good as he. So why mark me at twenty-nine, And him at sixty-three? There's a pretty little dolly girl over there, And I'm madly in love with she. But now that I'm only marked twenty-nine, She turns up her nose at me, She turns up her little wax nose at me, And carries on with sixty-three.
And, oh, she's dressed in a beautiful dress; It's a dress I do admire, She has pearly blue eyes that open and shut When worked inside by a wire, And once on a time when the folks had gone, She used to ogle at me. But now that I'm only marked twenty-nine, She turns up her nose at me. She turns up her little snub nose at me, And carries on with sixty-three.
Cheer up, my little tin man, said I, I'll see what I can do. You're a fine little fellow, and it's a shame That she should so treat you. So I took down the label from the shelf above, And I labeled him sixty-three, And I marked the other one twenty-nine, Which was _very, very_ wrong of me, But I felt so sorry for that little tin soul, As he rode on his tin Gee Gee.
Now that little tin soldier he puffed with pride, At being marked sixty-three, And that saucy little dolly girl smiled once more, For he'd risen in life, do you see? And it's so in this world; for I'm in love With a maiden of high degree; But I am only marked twenty-nine, And the other chap's sixty-three-- And a girl never looks at twenty-nine With a possible sixty-three!
I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer, The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here." The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again, an' to myself sez I: O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy go away"; But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play.