Page:Excellent old ballad of The babes in the wood.pdf/3

 When he to perfect age should come,

Three hundred pounds a year;

And to his little daughter Jane,

Five hundred pounds in gold,

To be paid down on marriage-day,

Which might not be controul’d;

But if the children chanc’d to die

Ere they to age should come,

Their uncle should possess their wealth,

For so the will did run.

Now, brother, said the dying man,

Look to my children dear;

Be good unto my boy and girl,

No friends else have I here.

To God and you I do commend

My children night and day;

But little while, be sure, we have

Within this world to stay.

You must be father and mother both,

And uncle, all in one;

God knows what will become of them

When I am dead and gone.

With that bespake their mother dear;

O brother kind, quoth she,