Page:The Babes in the Wood.djvu/5

Rh VIII. These speeches then their brother spake &emsp;To this sick couple there: "The keeping of your little ones, &emsp;Sweet sister, do not fear. God never prosper me nor mine, &emsp;Nor aught else that I have, If I do wrong your children dear &emsp;When you are laid in grave."

IX. The parents being dead and gone, &emsp;The children home he takes, And brings them straight unto his house, &emsp;Where much of them he makes. He had not kept these pretty babes &emsp;A twelvemonth and a day, But, for their wealth, he did devise &emsp;To make them both away.

X. He bargained with two ruffians strong &emsp;Which were of furious mood, That they should take these children young &emsp;And slay them in a wood. He told his wife an artful tale: &emsp;He would the children send To be brought up in fair London, &emsp;With one that was his friend.

XI. Away then went those pretty babes, &emsp;Rejoicing at that tide, Rejoicing with a merry mind, &emsp;They should on cock-horse ride. They prate and prattle pleasantly, &emsp;As they rode on the way, To those that should their butchers be, &emsp;And work their lives' decay.