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As I was walking by yonder church wall |
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I saw four and twenty young men a-playing at the ball |
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I asked for my own true love but they wouldn't let him come |
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For they said the boy was young but a-growing. |
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Father dear father you've done me much wrong |
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You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young |
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But he will make a Lord for you to wait upon |
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And a lady you will be while he's growing |
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We'll send him to college for one year or two |
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And maybe in time the boy will do for you |
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I'll buy you white ribbons to tie around his waist |
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For to let the ladies know that he's married |
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The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green |
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The day is passed and gone my love that you and I have seen |
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It's on a cold winter's night that I must lie alone |
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For the bonny boy is young but a-growing |
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At the age of sixteen he was a married man |
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And at the age of seventeen the father to a son |
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And at the age of eighteen his grave it did grow green |
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Cruel dead had put an end to his growing. |
