The Trees They Do Grow High

The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green

The time is long past love that you and I have seen

It's a cold winter's night you and I must bide alone

My bonny lad is young, but he's growing, growing

Oh my bonny lad is young, but he's growing

'Oh father, dear father, you've done me much wrong

You've married me to a boy and I fear he is too young.'

'Oh daughter, dear daughter, if you stay at home with me

Oh a lady you shall be while he's growing, growing

Oh a lady you shall be while he's growing'

We'll send him off to college all for a year or two

Perhaps then, my love, to a man he will grow

I'll buy you white ribbons for to tie around his waist

So the ladies shall know that he's married, married

So the ladies shall all know that he's married'

At the age of sixteen well he was a married man

And at the age of seventeen the father to a son

At the age of eighteen, love, his grave was growing green

And so she saw the end of his growing, growing

And so she saw the end of his growing

I made my love a shroud of the holland oh so fine

And every stitch I put in it the tears come trickling down

Oh I once had a sweetheart but now I've never one

Farewell my own true love for growing, growing

Fare thee well my own true love for growing