Bellowhead - The Wife of Usher's Well lyrics

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There lived a wife at Usher's Well

And a wealthy wife, a wife was she

She had three stout and stalwart sons

And she sent them out over the sea

They had not been a week from her

A week, a week but barely one

When word it came to the carline wife

That her three sons, her sons were gone

They had not been a week from her

A week, a week but barely three

When word it came to the carline wife

That her three sons she'd never see

'I wish the wind may never cease

Nor fashes, nor fashes in the flood

Till my three sons come home to me

In earthly flesh, in flesh and blood'

It fell about on the Martinmas

When nights were long and dark

The carline wife's three sons came home

And their hats were of the bark

It neither grew in syke nor ditch

Nor yet in any wood

But at the gates of Paradise

The birch trees there they stood

'Blow up the fire my maidens three!

Bring water, bring water from the well!

For all my house we shall feast this night

Since my three sons, my sons are well'

And she has made for them a bed

She's made it large and she's made it wide

She's took her mantle thereabout

Sat down, sat down at their bedside

Up then crew the red, red cock

Then up and crew the rooster grey

The eldest to the youngest said

'This time, this time we were away'

The cock he had not crowed but once

And clapped his wings, his wings and all

When the youngest to the eldest said

'Oh Brother, brother we must away'

'The cock does crow, the day does dawn

The channering worm does chide

And we must be out of our place

A sore pain we must bide'

'And fare thee well to my mother dear

Farewell to barn and byre

And fare thee well to the bonny lass

That kindles my mother's fire!'

It fell about on the Martinmas

When nights were long and dark

The carline wife's three sons came home

And their hats were of the bark