Page:Excellent old ballad of The babes in the wood.pdf/5

 When for their wealth he did devise

To make them both away.

He bargain’d with two ruffians rude,

Which were of furious mood,

That they should take the children dear,

And slay them in a wood.

He told his wife, and all he had,

He did the children send

To be brought up in fair London,

With one that was his friend.

Away then went these pretty babes,

Rejoicing at that tide,

Rejoicing with a merry mind

They should on cock-horse ride.

They-prate and prattle pleasantly,

As they rode on the way,

To those that should their butchers be.

And work their lives’ decay.

So that the pretty speech they had

Made murd’rers’ hearts relent;

And they that undertook the deed

Full sore they did repent.

Yet one of them, more hard of heart,

Did vow to do his charge,