Bellowhead - The Wife of Usher's Well lyrics

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 co*k Then up and crew the rooster grey The eldest to the youngest said 'This time, this time we were away' The co*k 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 co*k 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 la** 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