The Borrowed Spade

Lyrics

You lent me your spade in the spring, Tom,
Said keep it as long as you need
I leaned it against my back fence
Beside a few packets of seed
The handle's gone smooth from my hands now
The blade has a shine on the edge
It's dug out a bed for the beans, Tom
And a hole for a little pear hedge

Oh, the borrowed spade, the borrowed spade
Is the reason that we talk
Over the wall in the evening light
With our boots caked up in chalk
I know I should carry it back, Tom
But there's something in keeping it here
A tool that goes over a fence
Is a friendship that lasts the year

You came by in June with a lettuce
And I sent you home with a jar
Of the plum jam I make every August
Though you'd never asked who we are
You knocked on the door for a cuttings
I found you a pot and some twine
And neither of us said the spade, Tom
We just let the old thing be mine

Oh, the borrowed spade, the borrowed spade
Is the reason that we talk
Over the wall in the evening light
With our boots caked up in chalk
I know I should carry it back, Tom
But there's something in keeping it here
A tool that goes over a fence
Is a friendship that lasts the year

Some things you return in a hurry
And some you return when it's time
A thing that is lent with a handshake
Is held with a kind of a line
Stretched out between two little gardens
Too fine for a stranger to see
You keep it quite taut with a favour
And I keep it taut with some tea

Now the frost is arriving, Tom
And the soil is turning to stone
I'll scrub off the clay with a bucket
And oil the old handle alone
I'll walk it around by the lane road
And hand it right back with a grin
Then you'll say, keep it till April
And we'll start the whole thing again

Oh, the borrowed spade, the borrowed spade
Is the reason that we talk
Over the wall in the evening light
With our boots caked up in chalk
I'll carry it back, and you'll send it
Right back with a nod and a smile
A tool that goes over a fence
Is a friendship that lasts a while

Keep it till April, Tom
Keep it till April