The Wife Of Usher's Well

It’s of a knight and a lady bright
And she had little babes three
She sent them away to the North Countree
For to learn their gramaree

They hadn’t been gone but a very short time
About six months and a day
When death, cold death come a riding along
For to carry those babes away

It was on one dark, cold Christmas morn
When everything was still
She saw those three little babes come a-running
Come a-running down the hill

She set them a table of the wine and meat
That they might drink and eat
She set them a bed and a winding sheet
That they might sleep so sweet.

“Take it off take it off,” cried the eldest one
“Take if off,” cried she
“For I care no more for this wide wicked world,
There’s a better one for me.

“Cold clouds, cold clouds, lay at my head
“Cold clouds lay at my feet,
And the tears my mother did shed for me,
They would tear this winding sheet.”