American Old Time Song Lyrics: 55 One Lesson In English I'll Give You

Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 55

ONE LESSON IN ENGLISH I'LL GIVE YOU.
Copyright, 1897. by W. M. Reynolds.
Words and Music by W. H. Reynolds.

To a pretty southern village in the Land of Liberty,
Came a soldier of that brave ins urgent hand,
Who defying death and torture said, "Fair Cuba shall be free,
And the Spanish foe be driven from our land."
Here he met and loved a maiden fair and asked her for her hand,
And she promised to become the soldier's bride;
Begged be then to learn one sentence of the language of her land.
And in accents soft And low the maid replied:

Chorus.
"One lesson In English I'll give you, I love you, that's all,
Thine ever your own Margarita, till death shall befall."
He answered, "When the war's over and Cuba is free,
We shall be wedded, till then, Margarita, I'll be faithful to thee."

He, his passion told in Spanish, softly sang sweet Cuban songs,
For the maiden spoke her lover's native tongue:
When with dashing eyes he told of his beloved Cuban wrongs,
Margarita's tender heart with grief was wrung:
But the time drew near for parting and her eyes with tears grew dim
He would soon be fighting for his native land.
When he begged one parting token she a picture gave to him,
On the back of which she wrote with trembling hand;-Chorus.

Yielding up his life for freedom, dying on his native plain,
Lay a soldier of that brave insurgent band.
Who so often put to flight the mighty hosts of haughty Spain,
Winning sympathy and friends in ev'ry land.
To his lips he press'd a picture of a maiden young and fair,
And a vision of the girl he held so dear
Flitted o'er his dying fancy, and in answer to his pray'r,
Margarita seemed to whisper in his ear-Chorus.