"Grandpa Has Gone to Sleep" (15 Dec 1884)
Song & Chorus
Words by Laura E. Newell
Music by William L. Hofer

New York: Willis Woodward & Co., 842 & 844 Broadway
[Source: 24895@LoC]

1. Oh! Grandpa has gone to sleep, mama,
And he looks so cold and white;
Last ev’ning he said he was going home,
When I kiss’d him to say “goodnight!”
And he told me that Grandma would meet him,
She had waited so long, he said,
And he seem’d oh, so happy, dear mama!
But, I thought you said Grandma was dead!

CHORUS [sung after verses 1 and ­2]
Yes Grandpa has gone to sleep, mama,
And I cannot make him hear,
Tho’ I told him the birds were all singing,
And the morning was bright and clear.

2. He said “there were beautiful flow’rs,” mama,
“In the land where he long’d to be”
So I gath’d the brightest of ours, mama,
For my dear old Grandpa to see,
Then I put them all in to his hand, mama,
I wonder what makes his so cold?
Is it ’cause he is sleeping to long, mama?
Or is it because he is so old?

3. I remember he bade me “be true,” mama,
And whisper’d “he soon must sleep,”
But he told me “that Grandpa loved me” mama,
Why mama; what makes you weep?
And he said “at the end of the journey,
That Grandma and he would wait,
For us and greet our coming,“ mama,
“With joy at the beautiful gate.”

CHORUS [sung after verse 33
With joy at the beautiful gate, mama,
O mama, what makes you cry?
For, Grandpa said “in a little while
We would meet in the home on high!”