The trees they grow so high
 And the leaves they grow so green.
 And many a cold winter’s night
 My love and I have seen.
 Of a cold winter’s night,
 My love, you and I alone have been,
 Whilst my bonny boy is young
 He’s a-growing.
 Growing, growing.
 Whilst my bonny boy is young
 He’s a-growing.
 
 O father, dearest father.
 You’ve done to me great wrong,
 You’ve tied me to a boy
 When you know he is too young.
 O daughter. dearest daughter,
 If you wait a little while,
 A lady you shall be
 While he’s growing.
 Growing, growing,
 A lady you shall be
 While he’s growing.
 
 I’ll send your love to college
 All for a year or two,
 And then in the mean-time
 He will do for you;
 I’ll buy him white ribbons,
 Tie them round his bonny waist
 To let the ladies know
 That he’s married.
 Married, married,
 To let the ladies know
 That he’s married.
 
 I went up to the college
 And I looked over the wall,
 Saw four-and-twenty gentlemen
 Playing at bat and ball.
 I called for my true love,
 But they would not let him come,
 All because he was a young boy
 And growing.
 Growing, growing,
 All because he was a young boy
 And growing.
 
 At the age of sixteen
 He was a married man,
 And at the age of seventeen
 He was a father to a son;
 And at the age of eighteen
 The grass grew over him.
 Cruel death soon put an end
 To his growing.
 Growing, growing,
 Cruel death soon 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.
 Growing, growing,
 And I’ll watch all o’er his child
While he’s growing.