Page:More English Fairy Tales.djvu/139



OW ponder well, you parents dear,

These words which I shall write;

A doleful story you shall hear,

In time brought forth to light.

A gentleman of good account,

In Norfolk dwelt of late,

Who did in honour far surmount

Most men of his estate.

Sore sick he was and like to die,

No help his life could save;

His wife by him as sick did lie,

And both possest one grave.

No love between these two was lost,

Each was to other kind;

In love they lived, in love they died,

And left two babes behind.

The one a fine and pretty boy

Not passing three years old,

The other a girl more young than he,

And framed in beauty's mould.