To Emma L. Gutekunst.
"Where Mother Is, We Call It Home" (1870)
Ballad with Chorus
[Song and Chorus]
Words & Music by
Alice Hawthorne
[alias for Septimus Winner, 1827-1902]

Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 452 Washington St.
Plate No. 11191.4
[Source: 9228@University of Oregon]

1. The heart hath much in life to learn,
Its many lessons bring us pain;
Yet Time our teacher, strict and stern,
Gives not a task that is in vain;
Still there is much, ’twas ever so,
That by an instinct seems to come,
The simple child soon learns to know,
Where mother is, to call it home.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
Where mother is, we call it home,
Where mother is, we call it home
Whatever change in life may come,
Where mother is, we call it home.

2. We wander o’er the world away,
Like giddy truants almost lost,
Yet still with home sick heart we stray,
With roving feet whate’er the cost.
But ah! the heart will ever yearn,
Where e’er with wayward step to roam,
For that one spot, and backward turn,
Where mother is, to call it home.

3. Tho’ fate may take us from her side,
And time may wear us from her care,
Apart from her we may abide,
Yet our true home is only there.
In shildhood, and in riper years,
What ever change in life may come,
In all our days, and in our tears,
Where mother is, to call it home.