There's a version in Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882). It's the major-key tune and includes the "ripest apples" verse. The last line of that verse is "True love is timid, so be not bold", which I've always taken to mean that her hesitation was out of understandable shyness or modesty, and the fact that he wasn't patient enough to hang around shows that she's well rid of him.

Marje