No. 50 Happy Souls (A), Ol 145
Hexatonic, mode 4 A (I II — IV V VI 7)
O happy souls, how fast you go,
And leave me far behind!
Don’t stay for me, for now I see,
The Lord is good and kind.
Go on, go on, my soul says go;
And I’ll come after you;
Tho’ I’m behind, I feel inclin’d
To sing hosanna too.
God give you strength your race to run
And keep your footsteps right;
Though fast you go and I so slow,
You are not out of sight.
When you get to that world above,
And all God’s glory see,
On that bright shore, your journey o’er,
Then look you out for me.
I’m coming on fast as I can.
Nor toil nor danger fear;
God give me strength!—may I at length
Be one among you there.
Then all together we shall meet—
Together we will sing;
Together we will praise our God
And everlasting King.
The tune is one of the comparatively few correct dorian recordings—not minorized—in the fasola song books. The compiler of the Olive Leaf gives the following note below the song: “I learned this air of Rev. Samuel Anthony, of Georgia, more than thirty years ago, Wm. Hauser, M. D., March, 1878.” See Introduction, p. 14, as to the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ tune family to which ‘Happy Souls’ belongs. An Irish variant is ‘The Peevish Child’, Petrie, No. 591.