No. 19 Orphan Girl, Csh 506
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
“No home, no home”, plead a little girl,
At the door of a princely hall,
As she trembling stood on the polish’d step,
And lean’d on the marble wall.
“My father, alas, I never knew”,
And a tear dimmed her eyes so bright;
“My mother sleeps in a new-made grave,
’Tis an orphan begs tonight”.
Her clothes were thin and her feet were bare,
But the snow had covered her head;
“O! give me a home”, she feebly said,
“A home and a bit of bread”.
The night was dark and the snow fell fast,
But the rich man closed his door;
And his proud face frowned as he scornfully said:
“No room, no bread for the poor”.
The morning dawned, and the orphan girl
Still lay at the rich man’s door;
But her soul had fled to a home above,
Where there’s room and bread for the poor.
The Cooper edition of the Sacred Harp gives the note: “Music by Eld. C. G. Keith, Nov. 1, 1906.” See Henry, JAFL, vl., 66f, for further references as to its occurrence. The tune is a derivative of ‘The Braes o’ Balquidder’. See ‘Lone Pilgrim’ for references to related tunes in this collection.