To Miss Ada Brooks
"Floating Down the Stream" (1867)
Ballad
Written by George Cooper, 1838-1927
Music by John Rogers Thomas, 1830-1896

New York: J. L. PETERS, 200 Broadway
Cincinnati: J. J. Dobmeyer & Co.
Chicago: T. G. DeMotte
St. Louis: J. J. Dobmeyer & Co.
Plate No. 2731=4
[Source: @NYPL]

1. How dear the merry days
That you and I have know,
Our happy happy-hearted plays,
Our rambles all alone.
The skies were fair and blue,
When pleasant waters gleam;
And Oh! the joys we knew,
When floating down the stream,
  And Oh! the joys we knew,
  When floating down the stream.

2. Fond eyes, the blue, the brown,
Would shine upon us then,
Oh! never never would they frown,
Why come they not again.
And loving lips would meet,
While fondly we would dream;
And life was honeysweet,
When floating down the stream.
  Oh! life was honeysweet,
  When floating down the stream.

3.
Oh, days that are no more,
Your echoes faintly fall;
How pure, how pure the hopes you bore,
Now gone beyond recall.
And yet your mem'ries bright,
Within the heart shall beam,
Till we, in dreamless night,
Go floating down the stream!
  Till we, in dreamless night,
  Go floating down the stream!