Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook

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	Happy Love 203 78 THE CHOICE OF A WIFE From Mrs. Jessie Ainsworth Sullivan, Ypsilanti, in whose New England family the song has been sung for several generations at family gatherings.



	i I will tell you the way I have heard some say To choose you a lovely young creature, To choose you a wife you would love as your life, With a fair and comely feature. 2 First, let her heart be her best part, Not given to flattery and cunning; With a nimble wit that will all times hit, And her tongue be not always running. 3 Let her forehead be high with a deep blue eye, And her mouth of equal measure; Her teeth milk-white, full of delight, And her sweet breath full of pleasure. 4 Let the hair of her head be by no means red, But lovely brown as a berry; A milk-white skin, and a dimple in her chin, And her lips as red as a cherry. 5 Let her stature be tall, but middling small, Her waist both trim and slender; Her instep thin, her ankle slim, O then, young man, you may venture.