The winters past and gone
and the leaves are growing green
And many are the things I've heard
and many I have seen
One cold winter's night
when walking all alone I've been
I spied a bunny boy, young but growing
And as he walked along the way,
the wind all in his hair,
An old man followed after with his daughter,
young and fair.
And as she passed by me,
oh, she cried aloud in sad despair,
About that bonny boy,
young but growing.
Oh father, oh father,
you have done me much wrong.
You've wed me to a boy
when you know he is too young.
Oh, have patience, my daughter,
for you know it won't be very long.
You know the boy is young,
but he's growing.
Oh, we'll send your love
away to school,
all for a year or two.
And maybe in the meantime
he'll come to do for you
And we'll place on his finger
some ring of a golden hue
To let the ladies know that he's mar ried
She went up to the school,
and she looked all over the wall.
Saw four -and -twenty gentlemen
playing hard at ball.
She called for her own love,
but they wouldn't let him leave at all.
They said, the boy is young,
but he's growing.
So at the age of fourteen,
well, he was a married man.
And at the age of fifteen,
he was father of a son.
At the age of sixteen,
o 'er his grave
the grass was growing green.
Cruel death had put an
en d to his growing.
So now her love is dead,
and in his grave do lie.
The green grass do grow over him
so very, very high
And this poor girl can mourn him
until the very day she dies
A -watching o 'er his son
while he's growing