4
If you do keep it carefully,
Then God will you reward,
If otherwise you seem to deal,
God will your deeds regard.
With lips as cold as any stone,
She kissed her children small,
God bless you both my children dear-
With that the tears did fall.
These speeches that the brother spoke,
To the sick couple there-
The keeping of your children dear,
Sweet sister do not fear.
God never prosper mc nor mine,
Nor aught else that I have,
If I do wrong your children dear,
When you're laid in your grave.
Their parents being dead and gone,
Their children home he takes,
And brings them home into his house,
And much of them he makes.
He had not kept these pretty babes
A twelvemonth and a day,
But for their wealth he did devise
To take their life away.
He bargained with two ruffians rude,
Who were of furious mood,
That they should take these children both
And slay them in a wood.
