"The Tunes I Whistled When a Boy" (1876)
Ballad.
Words by Nellie Eyster.
Music by H. C. Orth.

[New York?]: W. F. Shaw
Plate No. 497 3
[Source: 1876-11314@LoC;
CALL NUMBER
M2.3.U6A44
PART OF
American 19th-century sheet music. Copyright deposits, 1870-1885 
REPOSITORY
Library of Congress. Music Division. 
DIGITAL ID
sm1876 11314 urn:hdl:loc.music/sm1876.11314 
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1876.11314]

1. Oh sing that oldtime song tonight, 
My weary spirit would find rest 
In songs like those my Mother sang 
When cradling me upon her breast 
Deep in the wellsprings of my heart 
Are currents free from earth’s alloy, 
Which leap to life beneath the tunes, 
I used to whistle when a boy.

2. I’ve sat ’neath music’s witching spell 
Till ev’ry sense seem’d steep’d in bliss, 
And with each strain I’ve felt a thrill 
Like that awaked by Love’s first kiss, 
But soon they faded from my mind 
Forgotten us a broken toy 
The only tunes that never die 
Are those I whistled when a boy.

3. The friends of youth, my childhood home 
The woods to which I used to play 
The brooks, the meadows— what a page 
Is written on each melody. 
Then sing an oldtime song tonight 
For sound can yield no sweeter joy 
Than that which sacred makes the tunes 
I used to whistle when a boy.