“Now brother,” said the dying man,
“Look to my children dear;
Be good unto my boy and girl,
No friend else have they here.”
Their parents being dead and gone,
The children home he takes,
And brings them both 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.
He bargain'd with two ruffians bold,
Who were of savage mood,
That they should take the children twain,
And slay them in a wood.
They prate and prattle pleasantly
While riding on the way,
To those their wicked uncle hired,
These lovely babes to slay:
So that the pretty speech they had,
Made the ruffians' heart relent;
And they that took the deed to do,
Full sorely did repent.
Yet one of them, more hard of heart,
Did vow to do his charge,
Because the wretch that hired him
Had paid him very large.
The other would not agree thereto,
So here they fell at strife;
With one another they did fight,
About the children's life: