The other won’t agree thereto,
       So there they fall to strife;
     With one another they did fight
       About the children’s life;
     And he that was of mildest mood
       Did slay the other there,
     Within an unfrequented wood;
       The babes did quake for fear!

     He took the children by the hand,
       Tears standing in their eye,
     And bade them straightway follow him,
       And look they did not cry;
     And two long miles he led them on,
       While they for food complain: 
     “Stay here,” quoth he, “I’ll bring you bread,
       When I come back again.”

     These pretty babes, with hand in hand,
       Went wandering up and down;
     But never more could see the man
       Approaching from the town. 
     Their pretty lips with blackberries
       Were all besmeared and dyed;
     And when they saw the darksome night,
       They sat them down and cried.

     Thus wandered these poor innocents,
       Till death did end their grief;
     In one another’s arms they died,
       As wanting due relief: 
     No burial this pretty pair
       From any man receives,
     Till Robin Redbreast piously
       Did cover them with leaves.

     And now the heavy wrath of God
       Upon their uncle fell;
     Yea, fearful fiends did haunt his house,
       His conscience felt an hell: 
     His barns were fired, his goods consumed,
       His lands were barren made,
     His cattle died within the field,
       And nothing with him stayed.

     And in a voyage to Portugal
       Two of his sons did die;
     And to conclude, himself was brought
       To want and misery: 
     He pawned and mortgaged all his land
       Ere seven years came about. 
     And now at last this wicked act
       Did by this means come out,

     The fellow that did take in hand
       These children for to kill,
     Was for a robbery judged to die,
       Such was God’s blessed will: 
     Who did confess the very truth,
       As here hath been displayed: 
     The uncle having died in jail,
       Where he for debt was laid.

     You that executors be made,
       And overseers eke,
     Of children that be fatherless,
       And infants mild and meek,
     Take you example by this thing,
       And yield to each his right,
     Lest God with suchlike misery
       Your wicked minds requite.

The Hobyahs

Once there was an old man and woman and a little girl, and they all lived in a house made of hempstalks.  Now the old man had a little dog named Turpie; and one night the Hobyahs came and said, “Hobyah!  Hobyah!  Hobyah!  Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!” But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, “Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off his tail.”  So in the morning the old man cut off little dog Turpie’s tail.