THE
BABES
IN THE
wooD

To God and you I recommend
My children dear this day ;

But little while be sure we have
Within this world to stay.

‘You must be father and mother both
And uncle all in one,

God knows what will become of them
When I am dead and gone.’

With that out spake their mother dear,
‘O brother kind,’ said she,

You are the man must bring our babes
To wealth or misery.

‘And if you keep them carefully,
Then God will you reward,
But if you otherwise shall deal,
God will your deeds regard.’
With lips as cold as any stone
They kiss’d their children small:
‘God bless you both, my children dear!’
With that their tears did fall.

The brother of the dying man spoke out that he
would do his best for the children, and be true to
the trust that was laid on him. And he said,
moreover, that if he should wrong them and rob
them of their rights, then he prayed that God
would turn His face from him, and that he might
cease to prosper in his undertakings.
This assurance comforted the sick father and
mother, and they died and were buried in one
grave.
The uncle then took the children away with him to
his own house, and he treated them not unkindly,
yet, for all, it was not as though they had been with
their own parents.
It must be told how that their uncle was a
eorerons man, and he thought how well it would
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