The Two Barrels

Song For The Rifle Volunteers Of England:

There’s a barrel I have in a corner so snug,
Well charged with the best of good ale;
With a tankard of that how the time will slip by,
With a pipe and a song, or a tale.
If a friend, just from over the way, should step in,
He is hail’d with a hearty good cheer,
And never repents as he tastes the contents
Of an Englishman’s barrel of beer.

Chor.
And never repents, &c.

There’s a barrel I have, but much stronger than beer
Is the charge which for that I intend;
It hangs by the chimney, in readiness near–
For I mean it my hearth to defend.
If a foe–just from over the way–should drop in,
We’ll meet him with three hearty cheers,
But I swear he repents when he tastes the contents
Of the barrels of stout Volunteers.

Chor.
I swear he repents, &c.

And thus, double-barrell’d, my boys, let us live,
Prepar’d for our friends or our foes;
The hand that in friendship we readily give,
Is as ready, at need, to give blows.
And whether the spigot or trigger we draw,
Our barrels won’t fail us, I ween;
So tankards and rifles let’s charge, hip hurra!
For our Freedom, our Country, and Queen!