"The Chimney Sweeper"

"The Chimney Sweeper"

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry " ' weep! ' weep! ' weep! "

So you chimneys I sweep, and I soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his dead,

That courl'd like a lamb's back, was shau'd: so I said

"Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when yours head's bare

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair"

And so he was quiete , in that very night

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,

Where all of them lock'd up in coffin's of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he open'd the cpffins and set them all free;

The down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,

And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;

And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,

He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;

So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.