Stan Rogers - Harris And The Mare Chords

Tuning DADGAD capo 3
Intro is finger picking in F 

F/Eb                          Bb            F
Harris my old friend, good to see your face again
     Bb                                   C
More welcome though yon trap and that old mare
        Bb                              F
For the wife is in a swoon and I am all alone
Ab               Gm               F
Harris fetch thy mare and take us home

    F/Eb                      Bb             F
The wife and I came out for a quiet glass of stout
      Bb                                 C
And a word or two with neighbours in the room
          Bb                                   F
But young Cleary he came in, drunk and wild as sin
    Ab                   Gm                   F
And swore the wife would leave the place with him

        F/Eb                           Bb             F   
But the wife as quick as thought said “No I‘ll bloody not.”
    Bb                                C
And struck the brute a blow about the head
          Bb                                    F
He raised up his ugly paw and lashed her on the jaw
        Ab            Gm                  F
And she fell unto the floor like she were dead

     F/Eb                              Bb              F
Now, Harris, well you know, I’ve never struck an angry blow.
    Bb                                   C
Nor would I keep a friend who raised his hands
         Bb                                                F
I was a “Conshie” in the war, crying “What the hell’s this for?”
      Ab             Gm            F
But I had to see his blood to be a man.

  F/Eb                              Bb                 F
I grabbed him by his coat, spun him round and took his throat
    Bb                                C
And beat his head against the parlour door.
           Bb                                               F
He dragged out an awful knife and he roared “I’ll have your life.”
        Ab              Gm            F
Then he struck me and I fell unto the floor.

  F/Eb                                 Bb            F
Blood I was from neck to thigh, bloody murder in his eye,
      Bb                               C
As he shouted out “I’ll finish you for sure.”
    Bb                                           F
But as the knife came down I lashed out from the ground
        Ab               Gm                    F
And the knife was in his breast when he rolled o’er

         F/Eb                    Bb          F
With the wife as cold as clay, I carried her away
    Bb                                    C
No hand was raised to help us through the door
         Bb                                            F
And I’ve brought her half a mile, but I’ve had to rest awhile
    Ab                Gm                F
And none of them I’ll call a friend the more

    F/Eb                            Bb              F
For when the knife came down, I was helpless on the ground
   Bb                              C
No neighbour stayed his hand I was alone
   Bb                                 F
By God! I was a man, but now I cannot stand
        Ab                 Gm               F
Please, Harris, fetch they mare and take us home

    F/Eb                       Bb             F
Oh, Harris, fetch thy mare and take us out of here
      Bb                             C
In my nine and fifty years I’d never known
        Bb                                        F
That to call myself a man for my loved one I must stand
     Ab                Gm                F
Now, Harris, fetch thy mare, and take us home.