Bonnie Boy Is Young

The trees they grow tall, the grass is growing green;

Many a cold and winter night that I alone have been

It is a cold and cruel night when I must lie alone

The Bonny Boy is young, but he is growing

Oh! father, dear father I think you done me wrong

To go and get me married to one who is so young

For he is only sixteen years and I am twenty-one

The bonny boy is young but he's growing

Oh! daughter, dear daughter, I did not do you wrong

For I have married you to a rich man's son

And he shall be a match for thee when I am dead and gone

He is young, but he is daily growing

Oh! father, dear father, I'll tell you what I'll do;

I'll send the boy to college for another year or two;

And all around his college cap, I'll bind a ribbon blue

For to let the ladies know that he's married

A year it went by and I passed the college wall

And saw the young collegians a-playing at the ball;

Amidst them was my own true love, the fairest of them all

He was young but he was daily growing

At the age of sixteen he was a married man

And at the age of seventeen he was the father of a son

At the age of eighteen, his grave had all grown green;

And the death put an end to his growing

I'll make my love a shroud of ornamental brown;

And whilst I am a making it, the tears they will run down;

For once I had my own love, now he's lying low

And I'll nurse his bonny boy while he's growing