At length the ringers rouse her hopes,
And all her senses charm,

And as they singly pull the ropes,
Her aged blood gets warm:
"But, as the fool thinks

So the bell tinks ;"

And now the sprightly peal comes on,
While Mary, as they tug away,

Cries, Lovely bells; how plain they say,

Do, Mary, marry John.

Now, at both ends the candle's burned;
She's beggared to a souse;
Each thing is topsy-turvy turned,

Out of the window goes the house.
"I cannot this distress survive ;
What scandal and disgrace!
Would my first husband were alive,
Or I were in his place!

A curse upon the fatal day

I listened to the bells,

That took my reason quite away,
Just like so many spells;

'But, as the fool thinks

So the bell tinks ;'

Why, what must I be thinking on,

To fancy, as they rang away,
The bells so stupid were, to say
That I should marry John ?"

Straight to the parson Mary goes,
And soundly lays it on:
You are the cause of all my woes,
You married me to John.