To Miss E. Virginia Richardson
"Let's Sit Down and Talk Together" (21 Nov 1853)
Words from
Mackellar's Droppings from the Heart
Music by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890

Baltimore, MD: MILLER & BEACHAM
Successors to F. D. Benteen
Plate No. 2541
Engraver: Webb
[Source: 550260@LoC]

1.
Let's sit down and talk together
  Of the things of olden day,
When we, like lambkins loosed from tether,
  Gaily tripp'd along the way.
Time has touch'd us both with lightness,
  Leaving furrows here and there,
And tinging with peculiar brightness
  Silvery threads among our hair.

[REFRAIN sung after each verse]
Let's sit down and talk together
Of the things of olden day,
When we, like lambkins loosed from tether
Gaily tripp'd along the way.

2.
Let's sit down and talk together;
  Many years away has passed,
And fair and foul has been the weather
  Since we saw each other last.
Many whom we loved are living
  In a better world that this;
And some among us still are giving
  Toil and thought for present bliss.

3.
Let's sit down and talk together;
  Though the flowers of youth are dead,
The ferns still grow among the heather,
  And for us their fragrance shed.
Life has thousand blessings in it
  Even for the aged man;
And God has hid in every minute
  Something we may wisely scan.

4.
Let's sit down and talk together;
  Boys we were,-- we now are men;
We meet awhile, but know not whether
  We shall meet to talk again.
Parting time has come: how fleetly
  Speed the moments when their wings
Are fanned by breathings issuing sweetly
  From a tongue that never stings!