Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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	304	OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
	I wandered by the brookside, 1 wandered by the mill; I could not hear the brook flow,— The noisy wheel was still. There was no burr of grasshopper, No chirp of any bird, But the beating of my own heart Was all the sound I heard. I sat beneath the elm-tree : I watched the long, long shade, And, as it grew still longer, I did not feel afraid: For I listened for a footfall, I listened for a word,— But the beating of my own heart Was all the sound I heard.		He came not,— no, he came not,— The night came on alone,— The little stars sat one by one, Each on his golden throne; The evening air passed by my cheek, The leaves above were stirred, But the beating of my own heart Was all the sound I heard. Fast, silent tears were flowing, When something stood behind: A hand was on my shoulder,— I knew its touch was kind: It drew me nearer — nearer — We did not speak one word, For the beating of our own hearts Was all the sound we heard.
	ANNIE LAURIE.
	They sang of love, and not of fame; Forgot was Britain's glory; Each heart recalled a different name, But all sang " Annie Laurie."		And Irish Nora's eyes are dim, For a singer dumb and gory; And English Mary mourns for him Who sang of " Annie Laurie."
	Annie Laurie has come to mean, the universal soldier's sweetheart, "The girl he left behind him," and it is pleasant to know that there really was an Annie Laurie, once; two centuries ago, she was a blooming lassie. Here is the record, exactly as it was made in a trustworthy old " Ballad-Book," collected by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, of Hoddam: