Page:Excellent old ballad of The babes in the wood.pdf/4

 You are the man must bring our babes

To wealth or misery.

And if you keep them 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 kiss’d her children small;

God bless you both, my children dear

With that the tears did fall.

These speeches then their brother spoke

To this sick couple there:

The keeping of your children dear,

Sweet sister, do not fear;

God never prosper me nor mine,

Nor aught else that I have,

If I do wrong your children dear,

When you are laid in grave.

The parents being dead and gone,

The children home be takes,

And brings them home unto his house,

And much of them he makes.

He had not kept these pretty babes

A twelvemonth and a day,