LONG A-GROWING   Traditional - arr. Steeleye Span


F  C          Am      Dm            F
As I was a-walking by yonder church wall
      C               Am           Dm               F
I saw four-and-twenty young men, a-playing at their ball.
  C                     Am        Dm                    F
I asked for my own true love, but they wouldn't let him come
G        Am       Dm                  Am      (F...)
For they said the boy was young - but growing.



"Father, dear father, you've done to me much wrong.
You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young."
"But he will make a Lord for you to wait upon,
And a Lady you will be while he's growing."


"We'll send him to College for one year or two,
And maybe in time the boy will do for you.
I'll buy you white ribbons to tie around his waist
For to let the ladies know that he's married."

Inst.

The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green.
The day is past and gone, my love, that you and I have seen.
It's on a cold winter's night that I must lie alone
For the bonny boy is young, but growing.


At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen a father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen his grave it did grow green:
Cruel death had put an end to his growing.


And now my love is dead and in his grave doth lie.
The green grass grows o'er him so very, very high.
I'll sit and I'll mourn his fate until the day I die,
And I'll watch all o'er his child, while he's growing.