Alan Jay Lerner Waitin' For My Dearie Lyrics

Fiona
Many a lassie as ev'ryone knows'll
Try to be married before twenty-five.
So she'll agree to most any proposal.
All he mus' be is a man, an' alive.
I hold a dream an' there's no compromisin'
I know there's one certain laddie for me.
One day he'll come walkin' o'er the horizon:
But should he not, then an old maid I'll be.
Foolish, ye may say.
Foolish I will stay.
Waitin' for my dearie, an' happy am I
to hold my heart till he comes strollin' by.
When he comes, my dearie, one look an' I'll know
That he's the dearie I've been wantin' so.
Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
For my hopes will be high that he'll come strollin' by;
For ye see, I believe
That there's a laddie weary, and wanderin' free,
Who's waitin' for his dearie:
Me!

1st Girl What do ye do while ye're waitin' around
For your lad to come your way?

Fiona
Well, when no one is lookin', ye kneel on the ground,
An' ye pray an' pray an' pray!

2nd girl
But when lassies sit an' have no men,
Oh, how long becomes the night.

Fiona
But I fear the night is longer when the lad's no' right.
Waitin' for my dearie is sweeter to me
Than wooin' any laddie on the lea.

Girls
Dreamin' of your dearie, an' idlin' the day

Fiona
That's how I am an' how I'll ever stay.
Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
For my hopes will be high that he'll come strollin' by;
For ye see, I believe

Fiona and Girls
That there's a laddie weary, an' wanderin' free,
who's waitin' for his dearie:

Fiona
Me!