To Miss Mary Austin
"Grandmother's Cot" (3 Nov 1870)
Song & Chorus
Words by Emma F. Molloy
Music by Arthur Baker

Chicago: Root & Cady
Plate No. 6010
[Source: 03378@LoC]

1. ’Twas a little low cot on the hill 
Where the asters and hollyhocks grew, 
And the long stocks of feathery dill, 
Waved all the long summer day through. 
The river lay winding below, 
And the spring at the foot of the hill, 
While just in the valley beyond 
Lay the shade of the busy old mill.

CHORUS [sung after each verse]
Oh picture to memory dear, 
Outliving the rude storms of time, 
When life was in tune with me here, 
And hope was its musical rhyme.

2. A mile away stood the old Church,
Where with quiet and reverent air,
In the pulpit rose old Father Birch,
And offered each Sabbath the prayer,
Then the choir sang “Old Hundred” and “Mear”
Or wanderered through “Windham” so sweet
And we thought of the gate way of Gold,
When the leader said sing, “Silver Street.”

3. The cot and the church stand unchanged,
But the parson has gone to his rest,
And Grandma alas is not here,
And the rock in the porch builds its nest.
The woods have the asters outgrown,
Hushed are all the loved voices of yore.
Yet the path into Heaven seems to me
To lie nearest from Grandmother’s door.