7 Then bowed down the highest tree
unto his mother's hand;
Then she cried, See, Joseph,
I have cherries at command.
8 O then bespake Joseph:
'I have done Mary wrong;
But cheer up, my dearest,
and be not cast down.'
9 Then Mary plucked a cherry,
as red as the blood,
Then Mary went home
with her heavy load.
10 Then Mary took her babe,
and sat him on her knee,
Saying, My dear son, tell me
what this world will be.
11 'O I shall be as dead, mother,
as the stones in the wall;
O the stones in the streets, mother,
shall mourn for me all.
12 'Upon Easter-day, mother,
my uprising shall be;
O the sun and the moon, mother,
shall both rise with me.'
B
a. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 59, from a Worcester broadside of the last century. b. Hone's Ancient Mysteries, p. 90, from various copies, c. Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 45. d. Birmingham chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. xxxviii.
1 Joseph was an old man,
and an old man was he,
And he married Mary,
the Queen of Galilee.
2 When Joseph was married,
and Mary home had brought,
Mary proved with child,
and Joseph knew it not.