THE BABES IN THE WOOD

=| HERE lived once on a time a father in
Norfolk who had two little children
with his wife.

One was a fine and pretty boy,
Not passing three years old,

The other a girl more young than he,
And framed in beauty’s mould.

 

Now there came a pestilence in the land, and the
father and mother were both taken and fell very ill,
and saw that they were like to die. He was very
troubled about his children, when he and his wife
should be gone. This father was a man of some
possessions. He sent for his brother, and he made
his will, and he left to his little son three hundred
pounds a year; and to his little daughter Jane he
left five hundred pounds to be paid down on her
marriage day. But if the children should die
before they came of age, then he decreed that all
the money should go to their uncle.

When the father had settled his will, then he
called his brother to the bedside.

‘Now, brother,’ said the dying man,
‘Look to my children dear ;
Be good unto my boy and girl,
No friends have they here. é
I

THE
BABES
IN THE
wooD