Many an’ many a time we wandered in the grassy medder-land
  With our wishes right together an’ our longin’s hand in hand;
  How we dreamed about the future when the world should give me fame,
  An’ when she would be thrice noble to be worthy o’ my name! 
  Thus we talked an’ thus we fancied; others might my boyhood shun,
  But I found her kind, my sweetheart, on the banks o’ Turkey Run.

  But the times have been a-changin’ sence them arly years o’ joy,
  When she wus but a little girl an’ I a little boy;
  When Joe an’ Jerry, Bill an’ I, together wus at play,
  With our hearts as light as feathers, every minute of the day,
  An’ at twilight sunk ter slumber tell the mornin’ wus begun,
  In the gloomy silent forests on the banks o’ Turkey Run.

  Bill an’ Joe have gone a-rovin’ on a fortune-huntin’ quest
  Through the silver mines an’ Injuns in the mountains o’ the west;
  But the janders came ter Jerry with a solemn sort o’ call
  Tell they painted him as yaller as a punkin in the fall;
  An’ to-day I saw his tombstone as it glittered in the sun,
  Over in the little churchyard, on the banks o’ Turkey Run!

  An’ alas, my precious sweetheart!  Like a lily virgin white,
  Did she slowly fade an’ wither tell her spirit took its flight! 
  Like an angel into heaven did she sweetly, calmly creep,
  An’ her lovely life wus over an’ her bosom went ter sleep;
  An’ the tollin’, tollin’ church-bells dropt the dirges one by one,
  As we laid her ‘neath the wilier on the banks o’ Turkey Run.

  Thar a little cross o’ marble marks the sacred, silent shade,
  Whar the fair an’ laughin’ beauty o’ my ole sweetheart wus laid;
  An’ the summer has a sadness thet is cryin’ through the years,
  An’ my heart is full o’ sorrow, an’ mine eyes is full o’ tears,
  Fer I’ve allus had a failin’, sence her friendship first I won,
  Fer thet little lovin’ maiden on the banks o’ Turkey Run!

  But them days have past forever in the years o’ long ago,
  An’ a wishin’ ter be wealthy has enraptured Bill an’ Joe;
  Death has taken Jerry; only I, o’ all the boys,
  Am’ remainin’ ter remember all them arly angel joys;
  But to-night I see their faces as they peep in full o’ fun,
  An’ agin we’re boys together, on the banks o’ Turkey Run!

ENVOY.

  Oh, to be able to capture and bring
    And bind in the bonds of control,
  Some of the carols that warble and sing
    Down in the depths of my soul.