[46. Childe Waters]
I
Childe Waters in his stable stood
Stroking his milk-white steed:
To him came a fair young lady
As ever wore woman’s weed.
II
Says, ‘Christ you save, Childe Waters!’
Says, ‘Christ you save and see!
My girdle of gold, which was too long,
Is now too short for me.
III
‘And all is with one child of yours
I feel stir at my side:
My gown of green, it is too strait;
Before it was too wide.’—
IV
‘If the child be mine, Burd Ellen,’ he said,
‘Be mine as you do swear,
Take you Cheshire and Lancashire both,
And make that child your heir.’