Lady Gay - Joan Baez

There was a lady and a lady gay

Of children she had three

She sent them away to the North Countree

To learn their grammaree

They’d not been gone but a very short time

Scarcely three weeks and a day

When death, cruel death, came along

And stole those babes away

«There is a King in Heaven», she cried

«A King of third degree

Send back, send back my three little babes

This night send back to me»

She made a bed in the uppermost room

On it she put a white sheet

And over the top a golden spread

That they much better might sleep

«Take it off, take it off», cried the older one

«Take it off, take it off», cried he

«For what’s to become of this wide wicked world

Since sin has first begun»

She set a table of linen fine

On it she placed bread and wine

«Come eat, come drink my three little babes

Come eat, come drink of mine»

«We want none of your bread, mother

Neither do we want your wine

For yonder stands our Savior deer

To Him we must resign»

«Green grass is over our heads, mother

Cold clay is over our feet

And every tear you shed for us

It wets our winding sheet»