This historical ballad told since the sixteenth century was often printed in chapbooks. A young couple dies, leaving their two young children in the care of an uncle. The uncle, determined to obtain their inheritance, has the children taken into the wood to be killed. The children escape death at the hands of their murderers, but are lost in the forest and die. One might think the story was popular as an educational device for children, but in fact it may have been passed down as a warning to adults on proper care of their children.