meal = oatmeal, the staple food; kale = cole, or cabbage -- in other words he can feed a wife well. but and ben = a two-room house (but is the first room, and ben the other one "through" the house). genty [which is correct; gentry has to be a typo] = neat, tasteful [really a version of "genteel"]. Mailen = a farm holding, property. Your "fee" is wrong, Jean sings "foo", usually spelled "fou", = "full", i.e. "very". Does that answer you well enough? Cheers Murray