That lovely old song from Burl Ives' 78 (!) record in my collection has been a joy to sing for over 50 years, but so is the one that LoHouse asks for originally which I've been singing as long tho I can't remember whose recording I learned it from, nor how it's titled, but the complete lyrics are:

As I was out walking one morning in May,
I spied a young couple out making their way,
And she was a maiden so young and so fair,
And he was a soldier and a bold grenadier.

"Good morrow, good morrow, good morrow," said he,
"And where are you going, my pretty lady?"
"I'm going for a walk by the edge of the sea,
For to see the waters rising, hear the nightingale sing."

Well, they had not stood there but a moment or two,
When out of his knapsack a fiddle he drew,
And the tune that he played made the woods for to ring.
"Oh, hark," said the maiden, "Hear the nightingale sing!"

"Oh, soldier, oh soldier, will you marry me?"
“Oh, no, pretty lady, that never can be.
I've a wife back in London and children twice three,
Two wives and the army's too many for me!

"I'm going back to London to stay for a while.
But it's often I'll think of your pretty smile
And if ever I return it will be in the spring
For to see the waters rising, hear the nightingale sing."

I hope that this will, Lo, and that you know the lovely melody which is minor or modal. I've always suspected that there's more than a double entendre in the fiddling around he did, and her rapturous response and expectations of marriage. May we all see the water rising and hear the nightingale sing.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Mar-02.