Stay, Father, Stay

Cat. #0873 (MFH #611) - As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on August 27, 1969

VERSE 1
Stay, Father, stay, th nights are wild
Leave not now your die'n child
I feel th ivy hands of death
An' short an' shorter grows my breath

VERSE 2
Stay, Father, stay, alone, alone
There's no to cheer an' none to mourn
How can, I cannot never die
Unless my Father are near by

VERSE 3
Stay, Father, stay my Mothers gone
Here I am left alone
I hear 'er crying in her sleep
She prayed to God, my soul to keep

VERSE 4
Stay, Father, stay, once more I'll ask
Count it not a heavy task
To stay with me till life shall end
My last, my own, th earthly friend