This song is, in words and music, very similar to English broadside ballads,

19th century reworkings of old folk songs. The tone is coy and somewhat

suggestive, and the refrain "Chut, chut, " "Sssh, sssh, " is clearly meant to

indicate the somewhat clandestine, though basically innocent, nature of the

lover's meetings. This is one of the songs that shows the most western

European influence.

The girl sings that her father has put her to work, to watch the cows. She

ends the verse with "Sssh, shhh, don't talk, don't make noise!" The reason

for this refrain becomes increasingly clear as in the second verse, she

sings that her sweetheart has joined her, in the third verse that she didn't

do much work, but did get thoroughly kissed, and in the last verse, that there

are girls more finely dressed and coiffed, but she is quite finely kissed.

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