"The Three Angel Visitants" (1857)
Words and Music
by Chauncey Marvin Cady, 1824-1889

New York, NY: J. L. Peters
Cincinnati, OH: J. J. Dobmeyer & Co.
Chicago, IL: De Motte Bro's
St. Louis, MO: J. J. Dobmeyer & Co.
[Source: 128/102@Levy]

1.  Father, dear father, a young  child said,
As she stole, one night to his lonely bed:
Father, O come   to me room with me,
And three beautiful angels there you’ll see. 

2. Just now, as I lay with half closed eyes,
I  heard a sweet song from the sparkling skies;
And as I was wondering what it could mean,
Mother, Mary and Willie cam gliding in. 

3. They hovered around my little bed,
And each laid a hand on my aching head;
The tears from my eyelids fell like pearls,
But they wiped them away with my loosen’d curls. 

4. I’ll tell you, dear dather, why I cried.
’Twas because with them we had not died;
I tho’t, when they’d gone, how lonely ’twould be,
To live all alone here— just you and me. 

5. “’Tis a dream, a dream, my precious child,
Your aching head made your fancy wild.”
A dream, O no! that could not be,
For dreams do not come and talk with me. 

6. And they did talk, for sister Mary said,
Her spirit was  blest tho’ her body was dead,
And she said that but once the flowers should die,
And I’d find my home in her own bright sky.
Come, come, come with me.” 

7.  And little Willie, as he stood there,
With his mild blue eyes and shining hair,
Limp’d amid smiles I yet can see—
“Come, little sister, go home with me. 

8. But my gentle mother’s eye grew dim,
As she said, “let her stay and comfort him,
To both but a few months of sorrow are given,
We’ll then have them, Willie, with us in heaven.
Yes, yes, all in heaven. Yes, yes, all in heaven.