Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Washington and Lowell Day/Mount Vernon Bells

by Jason Elmer Hammond

 

MOUNT VERNON BELLS.

[Air:—Massa ’s in de Cold, Cold Ground.]

(From Song Knapsack.)

 
Where Potomac’s stream is flowing,
Virginia’s border through;
Where the white-sailed ships are going,
Sailing to the ocean blue;
Hushed the sound of mirth and singing—
Silent every one—
While the solemn bells are ringing
By the tomb of Washington.

Chorus:—Tolling and knelling.
With a sad, sweet sound;
O’er the waves the tones are swelling.
By Mount Vernon’s sacred ground.

Long ago the warrior slumbered’
Our country’s father slept;
Long among the angels numbered—
They the hero-soul have kept.
But the children’s children love him
And his name revere;
So, where willows wave above him,
Sweetly, still, his knell, you hear.
 
Sail, Oh ships, across the billows,
And bear the story far,
How he sleeps beneath the willows,—
“ First in peace and first in war.”
Tell, while sweet adieus are swelling,
Till you come again.
He within the hearts is dwelling
Of his loving countrymen.