American Old Time Song Lyrics: 26 The Dear Old Village School
Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 26
The Dear Old Village School.
Copyright, 1884. by T. B Harms & Co.
Words and Music by Bobby Newcomb.
How oft I've said too late, since I tarried by the gate.
Near the dear old school-house down the shady lane;
Where little boys were classed, many happy days we passed,
Oh, those happy days that ne'er will come again.
How oft in childish glee I have read my A. B. C,
While my classmates played the scholar or the fool;
If I had the chance to-day, what attention I would pay
To the teachings of the dear old village school.
Chorus.
Those days of childish glee seemed a paradise to me,
As either one played scholar or the fool;
If I had the chance to-day, what attention I would pay
To the teachings of the dear old village school.
My playmates ev'ry one, when the school-house bell was rung,
In their merry laughter side by side would go;
Cheerful faces beaming bright, in the sunshine's welcome light,
As to mother dear a good-bye kiss we'd throw.
Those days unheeded flew, for how little then I knew
The value of the pencil, slate and rule:
Such grains of knowledge cast, but to mingle with the past.
They were left to crumble with the village school.-Chorus.
The years have passed and gone, for the night has followed morn,
And to man's estate from boyhood's dream I've strayed;
My weary plodding feet tread a busy thriving street,
Just where the unlit shady lane once laid.
Where the school-house used to stand there's a stately mansion grand,
Where still they play the scholar and the fool; .
And I'm thinking now to-day of the chances thrown away,
That were mine in the dear old village school.--Chorus