Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

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

	636	OUR FAMILIAR 80N0S.
	Nigh to a grave that was newly made, Leaned a sexton old on his earth-worn spade, His work was done, and he paused to wait The funeral train at the open gate. A relic of bygone days was he, And his locks were white as the foamy sea; And these words came from his lips so thin: " I gather them in: I gather them in. * I gather them in ! for man and boy, Year after year of grief and joy'; I've builded the houses that lie around, In every nook of this burial ground; Mother and daughter, father and son, Come to my solitude, one by one, — But come they strangers or come they kin — I gather them in, I gather them in.		" Many are with me, but still I'm alone, I'm king of the dead — and I make my throne On a monument slab of marble cold; And my sceptre of rule is the spade I hold; Come they from cottage or come they from halL Mankind are my subjects, all, all, all! Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully spin — I gather them in, I gather them in. ■ I gather them in, and their final rest Is here, down .here, in the earth's dark breast!" And the sexton ceased, for the funeral train Wound mutely o'er that solemn plain ! And I said to my heart, when time is told, A mightier voice than that sexton's old Will sound o'er the last trump's dreadful din — " I gather them in, I gather them in."
	THE GERMAN WATCHMAN'S SONG. It is the custom of some of the watchmen in Germany to sing songs during the night, a stanza of a national, amusing, or devotional song, for a kind of " All's well," as they an­nounce each hour. The following was one of the especial favorites. The music was composed by I. Heffernan.