The Poacher's Tithe x The Poacher's Tithe (Mashup)

[singer A] [Intro] He walked the Piper's wood at dawn And took the antlers shed and gone The silver birch, the mushroom white He filled his sack before first light [Verse 1] In town he sold the antler crown To hang above the inn in town He sold the birch for carven spoons And whistled underneath the moons Each dawn he went, each dusk he came The wood grew thin, he felt no shame He told the innkeep with a grin "The wood is wild — it's mine to skin" [transition] [singer B] [Pre-Chorus] Then on the road at falling light A piper stood in bone-white No footsteps on the leaf-strewn way The Bone Piper had come to weigh [Chorus] The Piper counts beneath the moon What you took, you'll pay back soon Branch by branch and bone by bone The tithe is taken, not a loan You skinned the wood that gave you shade Now every debt must be repaid When the bone pipes play the tithe-man's tune The poacher pays beneath the moon [Verse 2] "Good sir," he laughed, "the wood is free — No fence, no lock 'twixt it and me." The Piper smiled and raised his flute And played one note both sharp and mute [melodic interlude] [singer A] [Bridge] The sack burst open on the road And home the stolen branches flowed The antlers rose and took to air The spoons flew back without a care Then year by year his hair turned white Each stolen branch, a stolen night He reached the town an old, old man With empty hands and one dead plan [Breakdown] Branch by branch Year by year What you take You buy dear The wood gives freely to the kind It takes its tithe from thieves in kind [singer B] [Final Chorus] The Piper counts beneath the moon What you took, you'll pay back soon Branch by branch and bone by bone The tithe is taken, not a loan He walks the road with empty hands And warns the poachers of the lands: When the bone pipes play, you'd best atone — Take what is offered, leave the rest alone [Outro] At dawn they see him walking still Along the wood, against the hill He counts the branches, one by one And never takes them in the sun