Dedicated to my friend, P. A. Paulscraft
"Grandmother's Garret" (Oct 1884)
Words by Irene Dana
Music by William Kohnhorst

Boston, MA: W. A. EVANS & BRO., 1 Columbia Street
Plate No. 3
[Source: 20542@LoC]

1. Oh! sweet to my heart is my grandmother's garret,
With its cobwebbed rafters and windows so small,
With its treasures of years and the dust thick upon them,
And rubbish enough a child's heart to enthrall.
You may sing all of you please of the moss-covered bucket,
You may sing of the clock which stood on the stair;
But in my own heart there is naught can compare with
My grandmother's garret all out of repair.

2. There were chests packed with patchwork her dear hands had quilted,
There were books which she learned, when a child like myself,
There were bits of old china in a quaint corner cupboard,
Which had lost both its doors and a part of a shelf,
And a spinning-wheel old stood alone in one corner,
Suggestive of linen, with lavender scent,
Which grandma had packed in an old-fashioned bureau,
In a room where I followed whenever she went.

3. And the cradle in which I was rock'd when a baby,
With its red and white quilt, was a joy to my heart,
And in it I rock'd my own babies of sawdust,
With never a thought that we sometime must part;
In the years that have passed of joy and of sorrow,
A picture I've kept on mem'ry's fair wall;
'Tis of grandmother's garret, with cobwebs and contents,
With her love, as a well, thrown over it all.