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‘Little Sir William,’ Miss M. H. Mason’s Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, p. 46.
1
Easter Day was a holiday,
Of all days in the year,
And all the little schoolfellows went out to play,
Bat Sir William was not there.
2
Mamma went to the Jew’s wife’s house,
And knockëd at the ring,
Saying, Little Sir William, if you are there,
Oh, let your mother in!
3
The Jew’s wife opened the door and said,
He is not here to-day;
He is with the little schoolfellows out on the green,
Playing some pretty play.
4
Mamma went to the Boyne water,
That is so wide and deep,
Saying, Little Sir William, if you are there,
Oh, pity your mother’s weep!
5
‘How can I pity your weep, mother,
And I so long in pain?
For the little penknife sticks close in my heart,
And the Jew’s wife has me slain.
6
‘Go home, go home, my mother dear,
And prepare my winding sheet,
For tomorrow morning before eight o’clock
You with my body shall meet.
7
‘And lay my Prayer-Book at my head,
And my grammar at my feet,
That all the little schoolfellows as they pass by
May read them for my sake.’