Page:Two favourite ballads (1).pdf/2



Now ponder well, you parents dear,

The words which I shall write;

A doleful story you shall hear,

In time brought forth to light.

A gentleman of good account

In Norfolk liv'd of late,

Whose wealth and riches did surmount

Most men of his estate.

Sore sick he was, and like to die;

No help that he could have;

His wife by him as sick did lie,

And both possess'd one grave.

No love between these two was lost,

Each was to other kind;

In love they liv'd, 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 made in beauty's mould.

The father left his little son,

As plainly doth appear,

When he to perfeet age should conte,

Three hundred pounds a-year.