Print This Page#01494 Print This Page
The tree was growing tall and the leaves were growing green,
They grew all about the place oh where we have often been;
But now they all have fallen on a cold winter's e'en,
He's young but he's daily growing.
"Oh, father, oh, father, so cruel to me you've been,
You have a-married me to a boy so young and green;
While I am twice twelve, he is only thirteen,
He's young but he's daily growing."
"Oh, daughter, dear daughter, I have done no such thing,
You're a-married to a noble boy, and you wear his noble ring;
And if you'll only wait upon him he will be a royal king,
He's young but he's daily growing."
"Oh, father, oh, father, I tell you what we'll do,
We'll send him out to college all for a year or two;
And all around his waist we will bind a ribbon blue,
To let the girls know he's married."
As she was a-sewing all in her father's hall,
'Twas there she saw the schoolboys a-tossing up a ball;
And 'twas there she saw her own true love, the flower of them all,
He's young but he's daily growing.
He was a married man at the age of thirteen,
His only son was born when he was just fourteen;
But at the age of fifteen oh his grave was growing green,
And that put an end to his growing.
Collected in 1958 from Mrs. Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.677-678, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that this intriguing little ballad is very difficult to trace. Many scholars agree upon a Scottish origin, giving as evidence the arranged marriage of Elizabeth Innes to young Urquhart of Craigston who died early in life in 1634. Arranged marriages, sometimes of minors, were a fairly common practice among well-to-do families of this and earlier periods.
