School Song Knapsack/Mount Vernon Bells

by Henry Romaine Pattengill

Mount Vernon Bells.

(Air, “Massa’s in De Cold, Cold Ground.” Pat’s Pick, page 11.)

2 Sharps

   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.—Cho.

   Sail, O 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.—Cho.