"The Merry Bells Will Ring" [not dated nor published]
Words and Music by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890

[Source: manuscript photocopy from
Special Collecions
EMORY UNIVERSITY
The Robert W. Woodruff Library
Atlanta, 30322-2870]

1. 
The merry bells will ring in the brightest month of Spring 
  And the glad birds sing their sweetest song; 
The flow'rs will look so gay, on the happy first of May 
  When I join the merry, laughing throng. 
For I will be their queen, and trip along the green 
  With a heart as light as thistle down, la, la, la: 
For he'll be there to see, and he'll sweetly smile on me, 
  The merriest litle girl in all the town­­ha, ha, ha!

REFRAIN [sung after each verse]
The merry bells will ring in the brightest month of Spring, 
  And the glad birds sing their sweetest song; 
The flow'rs will look so gay on the happy first of May, 
  When I join the merry laughing throng.

2.
My lover he is true, and he wears the navy blue; 
  For a gallant sailor boy is he; 
He said, last whitsintide, that I should be his bride, 
  When he came back from over the sea. 
Oh, come that happy day when I'll be Queen of May, 
  With my lover smiling by my side, la, la, la! 
I'm only just sixteen, but­­then I am a Queen, 
  And soon will be the gallant sailor's wife­­ha, ha, ha!