Bonny Boy The trees are growing high my love, and the grass is growing green; And many a cold and winter night that I alone have been. It is a cruel and bitter night that I must lie alone, Oh! the Bonny Boy is young, but he is growing. Oh! father, dear father I think you did me wrong For to go and get me married to one that is so young. He is but sixteen years and I am twenty-one. Oh! the bonny boy is young and he's growing. Oh! daughter, dear daughter, I did not do you wrong For to go and get you married to one that is so young, He will be a match for you when I am dead and gone. Oh! the bonny boy is young, but he is growing. Oh! father, dear father, I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll send my love to college for another year or two; And all around his college cap, I'll bind a ribbon blue, For to let the ladies know that he's married. A year it went by and I passed the college wall And saw the young collegians a-playing at the ball; I spied him in among them, the fairest of them all, Oh! my bonny boy was young and still growing. At the age of sixteen years he was a married man, And at the age of seventeen the father of a son, But at the age of eighteen, o'er his grave the grass grew green; Cruel death put an end to his growing. I'll buy my love a shroud of the Holland linen brown; And whilst they are making it, the tears they will run down; It's once I had a true love, but now he's lying low, And I'll nurse his bonny boy while he's growing. DT #307 Laws O35 AX oct99
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!