"And let me hear of no complaint
At night when you come home.
"Sweet Jesus went down to yonder town,
As far as the Holy Well,
And there did see as fine children
As any tongue can tell."
On preferring, however, his petition to these children,—
"Little children, shall I play with you,
And you shall play with me?"
he is refused on the ground of his having been "born in an ox's stall," they being "lords' and ladies' sons."
"Sweet Jesus turned him around,
And he neither laugh'd nor smil'd,
But the tears came trickling from his eye
Like water from the skies."
Whereupon he returns home to report his grievance to his mother, who answers,—
"Though you are but a maiden's child,
Born in an ox's stall,
Thou art the Christ, the King of Heaven,
And the Saviour of them all;"
and then proceeds to give him advice neither consistent with the assertion in the last line, nor becoming her character:—
"Sweet Jesus, go down to yonder town,
As far as the Holy Well,
And take away those sinful souls,
And dip them deep in hell.
"Nay, nay, sweet Jesus said,
Nay, nay, that may not be;
For there are too many sinful souls
Crying out for the help of me."