The Cruel Mother (Child 20)

She leaned herself against a thorn
- All alone and so lonely,
And there she had two pretty babies born,
- And it's down by the greenwood side-o.
And she took off her ribbon belt,
- All alone and so lonely,
And there she bound them hand and leg.
- And it's down by the greenwood side-o.
“Smile not so sweet, by bonny babes,
If you smile so sweet, you'll smile me dead.”
She had a pen-knife long and sharp,
And she pressed it through their tender heart.
She digged a grave beyond the sun,
And there she's buried the sweet babes in.
She stuck her pen-knife on the green,
And the more she rubbed, more blood was seen.
She threw the pen-knife far away,
And the further the threw the nearer it came.
As she was going by the church,
She seen two pretty babies in the porch.
As she came to her father's hall,
She seen two pretty babes playing at ball.
“Oh babes, oh babes, if you were mine,
I'd dress you up in the scarlet fine.”
“Oh mother, oh mother, we once were thine,
You didn't dress us in scarlet fine.”
“You took a pen-knife long and sharp,
And pressed it through our tender heart.”
“You dug a grave beyond the sun,
And buried us under a marble stone.”
“Oh babes, oh babes, what have I to do,
For the cruel thing that I did to you?”
“Seven long years a bird in the wood,
And seven long years a fish in the flood.”
“Seven long years a warning bell,
And seven long years in the deeps of hell.”