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SONG. THE GREEN MOUNTAIN FARMER.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


267

SONG. THE GREEN MOUNTAIN FARMER.

[_]

Written in 1798, on Washington's accepting the command of the United States army.

Blest on his own paternal farm;
Contented, yet acquiring;
Below ambition's gilded charm,
Yet rich beyond desiring;
The hill-born rustick, hale and gay,
Ere prattling swallows sally,
Or ere the pine-top spies the day,
Sings cheerly through his valley;

CHORUS.

Green Mountains' echo Heaven's decree!
Live Adams, Law and Liberty.
With love and plenty, peace and health,
Enriched by honest labour,
He cheers the friend of humbler wealth,
Nor courts his prouder neighbour.
At eve, returning home, he meets,
His nut-brown lass, so loving,
And still his constant strain repeats,
Through groves and meadows roving.

268

CHORUS.

Green Mountains' echo Heaven's decree!
Live Adams, Law and Liberty.
Should Faction's wily Serpent spring
With treacherous folds to intwine him,
Undaunted by his venomed sting,
To flames he would consign him;
The hardy yeoman, like the Oak,
That shades his wood-land border,
Would baffle Anarch's vengeful stroke,
And shelter Law and Order.

CHORUS.

Green Mountains' echo, still would be!
Live Adams, Law and Liberty.
Should hostile fleets our shores assail,
By home-bred traitors aided,
No free-born hand would till the vale,
By slavery degraded;
Each youth would join the patriot brave,
To die proud Freedom's martyr,
And shed his latest drop, to save
His country's Glorious Charter.

CHORUS.

Green Mountains' echo then would be,
Fight on, Fight on for Liberty.
But hark! the invading foe alarms,
Responsive cannons rattle;
And Washington, again in arms,
Directs the storm of battle.

269

The locust swarm of Gallick fiends
He sweeps to mid-way ocean;
While fame the vaulted Ether rends,
With conquest's loud commotion.

CHORUS.

Shout! Shout! Columbians, Heaven's decree;
'Tis Washington and Victory!