To Miss
Josephine Hewitt,
Baltomore[, MD]
"Bell Brandon" (1854)
Ballad
Song and Chorus
Written by
T. Ellwood Garrett
Music by
Francis Woolcott
Arranged by T. B. Prendergast of the Cambell Minstrels
St. Louis: Balmer & Weber, 56 Fourth St.
Cincinnati: W. C. Peters & Sons
Louisville: Brainard Bro. & Co.
New Orleans: Ph. P. Werlein
Plate No. 646--4
[Source: 126/007@Levy]

1. 'Neath a tree by the margin of the woodland,
Whose spreading leafy boughs sweep the ground;
With a path leading thither o’er the prairie;
When silence hung her night garb around.
There often I have wander’d in the evening,
When the summer winds are fragrant on the lea.
There I saw the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And we met ’neath the old Arbor tree.
  There I saw the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And we met ’neath the old Arbor tree.

CHORUS 1
There I saw the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And we met ’neath the old Arbor tree.
  There I saw the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And we met ’neath the old Arbor tree.

2. Bell Brandon was a birdling of the mountain,
In freedom she sported on her wing;
And they said the lifecurrent of the Red Man
Ting’d her veins from a far distant spring.
She lov’d her humble dwelling on the Prairie,
And her guileless happy heart clung to me;
And I lov’d the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And we both lov’d the old Arbor tree.
  And I lov’d the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And we both lov’d the old Arbor tree.

CHORUS 2
And I lov’d the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And we both lov’d the old Arbor tree.
  And I lov’d the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And we both lov’d the old Arbor tree.

3. On the trunk of the aged tree I carv’d them
Our names on the sturdy form remain;
But I now repair in sorrow to its shelter,
And murmer to the wild wind my pain.
Oft I sit there in solitude repining
For the beauty dream that night brought to me;
Death has wed the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And she sleeps ’neath the old Arbor tree.
  Death has wed the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And she sleeps ’neath the old Arbor tree.

CHORUS 3
Death has wed the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
And she sleeps ’neath the old Arbor tree.
  Death has wed the little beauty, Bell Brandon,
  And she sleeps ’neath the old Arbor tree.