Page:More English Fairy Tales.djvu/143



They prate and prattle pleasantly,

As they ride on the way,

To those that should their butchers be

And work their lives' decay:

So that the pretty speech they had

Made Murder's heart relent;

And they that undertook the deed

Full sore now did repent.

Yet one of them, more hard of heart,

Did vow to do his charge,

Because the wretch that hired him

Had paid him very large.

The other won't agree thereto,

So there they fall to strife;

With one another they did fight

About the children's life;

And he that was of mildest mood

Did slay the other there,

Within an unfrequented wood;

The babes did quake for fear!

He took the children by the hand,

Tears standing in their eye,

And bade them straightway follow him,

And look they did not cry;

And two long miles he led them on,

While they for food complain:

"Stay here," quoth he, "I'll bring you bread,

When I come back again."