Workhouse Boy (Broadside ballad) The cloth was laid in the workhouse halls Greatcoats hung on the whitewashed walls The paupers all were blythe and gay Keeping their Christmas holiday Chorus: And we all of us say it And we say it with sneers Jamie's been murdered by the overseer [Repeated after each verse] When the master he said with a murderous leer You'll all get fat on your Christmas cheer And each by his looks he seemed to say I'll have some more soup on this Christmas day At length all of us to bed were sent A boy was missing and in search we went We sought him high and we sought him low We sought him with faces of grief and woe We sought him that hour and we sought him that night We sought him in fear and we sought him in fright When I heard a young pauper who then did cry We'll all have to starve till we find that boy At length the soup copper repairs did need The coppersmith came and there he see'd A pile of bones lay a-sizzling there And the leg of the breeches the boy did wear Source: Recorded by The Halliard (Nic Jones, Tony Rose and Jon Raven) 'Broadsid es'. SX apr00
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!