Mother and Child

It was in the month of January and the hills were deep with snow

When over hills and valleys my true love he did go

It was there I spied a pretty young girl with a salt tear in her eye

She held a baby in her arms and bitterly did cry.

How cruel was my father to bar the door on me

And how cruel was my mother this dreadful crime to see

And how cruel was my own true love to forsake my love for gold

And how cruel was that winters` night that pierced my heart with cold.

For the taller that the palm tree grows the sweeter is the bark

And the fairer that a young man speaks the falser is his heart

He will kiss you and embrace you `til he thinks that he has won

Then he`ll go away and leave you all for another one.

I`ll go to the lonely valley and on my knees I`ll fall

And there unto Almighty God for mercy I will call

She kissed her baby`s cold white lips and she laid him by her side

Then she raised her eyes to heaven and both lay down and died.