To Baby Griggs 
"Little Stockings by the Fire" (1878) 
Words by J. Cheever Goodwin. 
Music by J. L. Gilbert. 

Boston: Louis P. Goullaud, 108 Tremont St.
New York: Spear & Denhoff, 717 Broadway
Philadelphia: E. D. Freeman, 1102 Chestnut St.
Chicago: Chicago Music Co., 52 State St.
San Francisco: M. Gray 
F. M. Haskell & Co. Lith. 61 Hanover St. Boston 
Plate No. 516-3 
[Source: 105/109@Levy]

1. Shades of night are softly falling. 
All the world is white as snow. 
Moaning winds are sighing, calling, 
As about the house they go. 
Bells without are loudly clanging, 
But within a sweeter choir,— 
Childish hands are hapy hanging 
Little stockings by the fire.

CHORUS [sung after each verse]
Little stockings by the fire, 
Gone is ev’ry care and pain, 
Childish hearts have their desire; 
Santa Claus has come again.

2. Ah! how clearly I remember 
Christmas Eves of long ago; 
When I watched the mould’ring ember 
Brighten into sudden glow; 
Grow and quicken into being, 
As the sparks to flame aspire, 
Till my eyes were blessed in seeing 
Little stockings by the fire.

3. Gone is youth and childish pleasures. 
Gone,  to ne’er return again; 
Memory holds them ’mongsth its treasures, 
With a joy that’s kin to pain. 
But in mem’ry’s field Elysian, 
Where my footsteps never tire, 
Hold I as the dearest vision, 
Little stockings by the fire.