Oh, never let on to your own true love
That ever you drank a drop
That ever you played in a two-up school
Or slept in a sly-grog shop
That ever a bad girl nursed you round
That ever you sank so low
But she pulled you through, and it's only you
And your old mate Harry know
"Billy the Link" they called you then
And it makes me sad to think
Of the strenuous days when it took three cops
And a pimp to couple the Link
"Mister Linkhurst" they call you now
And your kitchen garden grows
And no one knows in your family
But your Uncle Harry knows
Oh, never let on to your fair young bride
How a "straight" girl stabbed your heart
With a devilish wire to the Western side
Where we were a world apart
With pick and shovel you fought it out
Where the red sirocco blows
And no one knew in the gang save you
But your old mate Harry knows
Oh, never let on to your own good wife
For a tender heart has she
Of the girl that loved and the girl that lies
In the graveyard there by the sea!
'Twas not for his "manners" she loved the cad
'Twas not for his verse or prose
But the pity she felt for the country lad
And your Uncle Harry knows
The bad girl went where the bad girls go
And I see her dark eyes yet
The good girl left me her broken heart
But I trow that their souls have met
The cry of the heart we send not forth
On every wind that blows
You are hiding a sorrow from someone now
But your Uncle Harry knows