"The Three Homes" (1859)
Song
Sung by Mr. Henry Squires
Written by J. E. Carpenter, Esq.
Composed by John Rogers Thomas, 1830-1896

New York: William Hall & Son, 543 Broadway
Boston: Russell & Tolman
New Orleans: P. P. Werlein & Co.
Louisville: D. P. Faulds & Co.
Plate No. 4343
Grave par Ben Marcato.
[Source: @NYPL]

[1.]
Oh the happy days of youth! 
What a sunny path was mine 
In those days of love and truth, 
When I’d nothing to repline; 
When a mother’s tender care 
Chased each little grief away, 
When I’d nothing I could share, 
Yet would give the world in play. 
[Refrain]
Ah! ’Twas the happy home of youth; 
They were merry days to me, 
Those days of love and truth 
That I never more may see. 

[2.]
But, another home was mine, 
For the lov’d one borne away 
In the blush of summer shine, 
The maiden fair and gay; 
But my lot was brighter still, 
To Love’s Ark there came a Dove, 
Came a duty to fulfil, 
Came a Flow’r to tend and love! 
[Refrain]
’Twas the home of happy years, 
Tho’ no longer I was free, 
For to share my hopes and fears, 
There was one still kind to me. 

[3.] 
There’s another home for all, 
And the time must come at last, 
When the mourner’s tear must fall, 
And the narrow porch be pass’d; 

[4.] 
May it find me still resign’d 
When I pass from those I love, 
And the hearts I leave behind, 
Reunite in realms above. 
’Tis the home of all, when free’d 
From the grief that all must see, 
If their paths in life but lead 
To the Mansions of the free!