Here are the lyrics as printed in the booklet to Evening Comes Early:

The Dark Slender Boy

When I go to the market to make a purchase
And grasp the earnest money within my hand,
The dark slender boy still seeks and searches
Till he slips beside me sedate and bland.
It's not long after my senseless laughter
Will reach the rafters, and I'm left prone
When I pay what's owing, even though it's snowing,      
Seven months without a shirt I am going, my money gone.

An Buachaill Caol Dubh is tall and festive
Clever and learned, of comely mien      
But he has left me and in pain bereft me      
Of all my fortune, sheep and kine.
Were I to travel to Fance, no go Cuan Binn Eadair
Or back across to Inishmore
Swift as a swallow, my track he would follow,
Until on the morrow I would find him there      

The fairy Queen of Thomond met us while roaming
Near the fray rock, and she told the lad
If he would me abandon, that she would grant him
A hundred topers to make him glad.
The slim boy answered in tones of banter
It was ne'er his fancy to lose a friend
Over hill and o'er hollow, my track he'd follow
A soak so mellow, until the end.


Does anyone know what a "toper" is?

Cheers,
Michael