Oh, where are you going to, my pretty little dear
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
I'm going a-milking, kind sir, she answered me
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

Oh, may I go with you, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
Oh, you may go with me, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

And what is your father, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
My father's a farmer, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

And what is your mother, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair:
My mother's a dairymaid, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

If I should chance to kiss you, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
The wind may take it off again, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

Oh say, will you marry me, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair:
Oh yes, if you please, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

Oh, will you be constant, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
Oh, that I cannot promise you, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

Then I won't marry you, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair.
Oh, nobody asked you, kind sir, she answered me,
And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Sharp, C (ed),1916,One Hundred English Folksongs,Boston,Oliver Ditson Co

Notes:
Cecil Sharp's notes follow:

THIS is a very popular song all over England,
and I have taken down a large number of variants.
The words, which vary but little, are very
free and unconventional. I have therefore taken
some of the lines in the text from Halliwell's
Nursery Rhymes (P. 35). In some versions, it is
"strawberry leaves," not "dabbling in the dew,"
that "makes the milkmaids fair" - which I am
told, though I have not been able to verify it, is
the version given in Mother Goose's Melodies for
Children (Boston, ed. 17 19).
The tune is in the AEolian mode.
For other versions with words, see the Journal
of the Folk-Song Society (volume iv, pp. 282-285);
Songs of the Four Nations (p. 58); English Folk
Songs for Schools (No. 23); and Butterworth's
Folk Songs from Sussex (No. 9).

The set in One Hundred English Folk Songs was originally found more or less as follows:

Dabbling in the Dew.

O where are you going to, my pretty little dear
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
I'm going a-milking, kind sir, she answered me,
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Shall I carry your pail then, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
O no sir, O no sir, I'll carry it myself,
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Suppose I was to kiss you, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
That would be no harm, sir, she answered me.
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Suppose I was to throw you down, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
So you must help me up again, sir, she answered me.
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Suppose you're in the family way, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
You'll have to stand the father of it, sir, she answered me.
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Suppose I was to run away, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
Then I must run the faster, sir, she answered me.
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Suppose I was to run too fast, my pretty little dear,
With your red rosy cheeks and your coal black hair?
O the devil would fetch me back again, sir, she answered me.
But it's dabbling in the dew where you might find me.

Noted by Cecil Sharp from John Swain at Donyatt, Somerset, 25 December 1904.

Nine versions appear in Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs (ed. Maud Karpeles, 1974). Only this, and a set noted from Jim Thomas at Camborne, Cornwall, 6 July 1914, have full texts attached. And it's dabbling in the dew makes the milkmaids fair occurs in several, and has been borrowed from one or another for the collated text published.

James Reeves (The Idiom of the People, 1958) comments:

"Sharp first printed this in Folk Songs from Somerset, II, 1905, with the following notes on the words: They are quite unsuitable for publication, so Mr Marson has rewritten the ballad, retaining the first verse only and the refrain. Marson's insipid text was indeed so remote from the original that in English Folk Songs, Selected edition, 1921, Vol. I, [the same as in 100, the American edition] Sharp abandoned it and printed a text based largely on that given in Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England (1842).

"Other printed texts, however, e.g. those in the Journal of the Folk Song Society, No. 17, 1913, are not at all free and unconventional in this sense. They show considerable variation, implying some editorial imgenuity on the part of collectors."


Other versions of the song can be found in the discussion thread

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