FOR CHILDREN 145

With lips as cold as any stone
They kissed their children small :
God bless you both, my children dear,”
And then their tears did fall.

These words did then their brother speak
To this sick couple there:
“ The keeping of your little ones,
Sweet sister, do not fear;

“* God never prosper me nor mine,
Nor aught else that I have,
If I do wrong your children dear,
When you are in the grave.”

The parents being dead and gone,
The children home he takes,

And brings them straight unto his house,
Where much of them he makes.

He had not kept these pretty babes
*A twelvemonth and a day,
When, for their wealth, he did devise
To make them both away.!

Iie bargained with two ruffians strong,
Which were of furious mood,

That they should take these children young,
And slay them in a wood.

He told his wife an artful tale—
He would the children send

To be brought up in fair London,,
With one that was his friend.

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1 7 make them both away—to make away with then—
to kill them.
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