The Three-foot Rule

[Verso 1]
 
    D                              A7 
When I was bound apprentice, and I learned to use my hands 
                               D 
Folk never talked of measures that came from other lands 
                 D7               G 
Now I'm a British Workman, and too old to go to school; 
  D                                       A7                          D 
So whether the chisel or file I hold, I'll stick to my three-foot rule. 
 


[Verso 2]
 
D                            A7 
Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilograms 
                          D 
And some of decilitres, to measure beer and drams; 
                 D7           G 
But I'm a British Workman, too old to go to school, 
  D                                               A7                          D 
By pounds I'll eat, by quarts I'll drink, and I'll stick to my three-foot rule. 
 


[Verso 3]
 
D                          A7 
A party of astronomers went measuring the earth, 
                             D 
And forty million metres they took to be its girth; 
                    D7                 G 
Five hundred million inches, though, go through from pole to pole; 
        D                                        A7                       D 
So let's stick to inches, feet and yards, and the good old three-foot rule. 
 


[Verso 4]
 
D                             A7 
The Great Egyptian Pyramids a thousand yards about, 
                                    D 
And when the masons finished it they raised a mighty shout, 
                     D7                 G 
The man who built that building well Im bound he was no fool, 
   D                                  A7                     D 
For now it Is proved beyond a doubt he used a three-foot rule. 
 


[Verso 5]
 
D                                     A7 
Heres health to every learned man who goes by common sense, 
                                   D 
And would not plague the workman on any vain pretense, 
                      D7                 G 
But as for those phil - anthropists whod send us back to school, 
    D                                        A7                        D 
Well damn their eyes if they ever tries to put down the three-foot rule.