The Cruel Mother
No: 20; variant: 20B
- SHE sat down below a thorn,
Fine flowers in the valley
And there she has her sweet babe born.
And the green leaves they grow rarely
- 'Smile na sae sweet, my bonie babe,
And ye smile sae sweet, ye'll smile me dead.'
- She's taen out her little pen-knife,
And twinnd the sweet babe o its life.
- She's howket a grave by the light o the moon,
And there she's buried her sweet babe in.
- As she was going to the church,
She saw a sweet babe in the porch.
- 'O sweet babe, and thou were mine,
I wad cleed thee in the silk so fine.'
- 'O mother dear, when I was thine,
You did na prove to me sae kind.'