I have known this song since childhood and always enjoyed it. It could also often be heard being sung by the great and famous on the radio at the back end of the 1940's. I did not take into my repertoire however, until coming across it Folk Songs of the British Isles. It originates from a Cecil Sharp collection and is a jolly account of an arduous young man wooing a charming young captain's daughter who had been taught always to say "No" as a defence against masculine wiles. Our hero is up to the mark by wittily conducting a conversation such that even when the girl always says "No", matrimony is the final result.

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When with Das Trio it would be sung by Maike Weyerts while I accompanied her on my concertina..

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Recently (October, 2013), I found another amusing 7-verse variant under the title of No, Sir, No given in Marrow Bones.

Lyrics