The Jew's Garden

The rain runs down through Maryland town

The rivers swell and swell

And all the lads in Maryland town

Throw pennies to the well

And their debts grow higher and higher

And their bets and their theories do grow

And they dared young Hugh to the Jew's garden

Where the scared nor the sceptics dared go

Then down came the Jew's daughter

All dressed in silk so fine

Cried she "Sir Hugh, oh pretty Sir Hugh

What appointments have made your mind?"

She offered him ripe apples

Likewise a gay gold diamond ring

And a lily with colour as red as blood

She enticed this little boy in

She took him by the lily white hand

And she led him down the hall

And she took a pen-knife to where he could not sound

And let his life-blood fall

She wrapped him into his winding sheets

Woven not of cloth but of lead

And she hurled him down the old town well

Saying "Sir Hugh, you must play with death"

"O help me, help me" cried little Sir Hugh

"And build me a coffin of birch

And tell my mother I'm fallen to sleep

And bury me in yonder church"

"Sing down, sing down, my little Sir Hugh

As jetsam to rise not" cried she

"Sing down, sing down, and with you your words

To my kin you are injury

Sing down, down, and with you your words

You are harmed as much as you've heard"