to lead someone up the garden path

ormally when we talk about leading we consider the positive action of going ahead with other people following and hopefully going in the right direction. Bur be careful, because if someone leads you up the garden path they deceive you - they give you false information and you may go something you regret.

Read the poem below....and be warned!

He led me up the garden path

He led me up the garden path; I swear to you it’s true.
He said we’d marry in the spring so what was I to do.
He didn’t want to wait he told me we could do it now
so how could I deny him, I implore you tell me how.

I thought it would be good for us to celebrate our love.
We’d fit together closer than his hand inside my glove
and ride together hip to hip like two peas in a pod.
I didn’t think that giving in so easily was odd.

Everyone was warning me that I should take it slow
I didn’t listen to them ‘cause I didn’t want to know
about the risks involved. They couldn’t tell me anything.
It wouldn’t happen to me. He was buying me a ring.

I heard my mother’s “told you so” when I ran home to her
to tell her how he’d left me but the rest is just a blur.
All that’s left is mounting debt and on my heart a scar
since I coughed up the down payment on his fancy foreign car.
 

An excellent example of someone "leading you up the garden path"....... the girl in the poem is deceived by her boyfriend who, falsely, swears he will marry her. The reader is also deceived by the poem...... until we reach the last line we imagine the boyfriend's desires had been different. In fact, the last line reveals that she has paid ( coughed up) for his smart foreign car!

What is the meaning of the following?

The old man the boats.

Suggestions please...