I used to be with virgin.net. Then I came across bigfoot.com, and decided that was much more the image I wanted at the foot of my email.

I've found the "drooping maiden" and the "wail" on the shore awkward to sing - and in fact I tend to sing the verses in question like this. I think it does no harm for a song to exist in different words on different lips, and I hope nobody minds. ,

There's a pale broken maiden who toils her life away,
With a warm heart, though better days are o'er.
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.

Tis a cry that is drifted across the troubled wave,
Tis a weeping that is heard upon our shore
Tis a prayer that is murmured around those lonely graves
Oh hard times come again no more.