I just love to listen to After the ball with Frances Black (from the CD A Woman's Heart) and that's no problem. But there's a problem anyway, as I love to sing it too and would like to sing the text she sings! I've found a version that's very close to the one she sings but there are some differences. I've copied it, tried to make the changes as I understand them, guessed some words and put ? for words I can't guess.

Can somebody help me to fill in the missing words and correct it if something is wrong? I guess many of you have this wonderful record!

(I hope I remembered how to do the line breaks. I don't write song texts here very often...)

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AFTER THE BALL

VERSE 1
A little maiden, climbs on an old man's knee
Begs for a story, do uncle please
Why are you lonely, why do you ?
Have you no sweetheart, have you no home?
I had a sweetheart, long, long ago
Why we were not wed you soon will know
List(en) to my story, I'll tell it all
I broke her heart, pet, after the ball

CHORUS:
After the ball is over
Just at the break of dawn
After the dance is ending
And all the stars are gone
Many's the ? ? aching
If you could read them all
Many's ? ? that's vanished
After the ball

VERSE 2
? lights were shining, in the big ballroom
Softly the organ, was playing a tune
There stood my sweetheart, my love, my own
I wished some water, leave me alone (?)
When I returned, ?, there stood a man
Kissing my sweetheart, as lovers can
Down went the glass, pet, broken that's all (?)
Just like my heart was, after the ball

CHORUS

VERSE 3
Many years have gone by, I have not wed
Due to my first love, though she is dead
She tried to tell me, tried to explain
I would not listen, ? in vain ?
One day a letter came from this man
He was her brother, the letter ran
That's why I'm lonely, no home at all
I broke her heart then, after the ball.

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Thanks a lot in advance!
Berit in Sweden

Separate posts combined by JoeClone